Marriage is a part of Sunnah, which is requested to Muslim to fulfill their need and to courage the iman. As marriage is requested by Islam to the Muslim, Man is allowed to choose their partner, and to marry more than one. This is happened due to ensure the descendant and heir of the Muslim itself. However, this allowable marriage seems to be misused by certain people until make women phobia to hear about it. Man marrying more than one is an issue where been talked by anybody from the whole world. There are lots of objection from women especially, and supported by man, who have the authority to marry more than one. To make this issue more understandable, we manage to make little study about this issue, since it is an interesting topic. However this issue should be look by several points of view, where it is not just consider about one side opinion, but as much as we can, so that it would make this issue clearer.
Man marry more than one, two, three, and four can simply be define as polygamy, which means a system of marriage, whereby one person has more than one spouse. The term polygamy is derived from a Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriages" which is used in related ways in social anthropology, sociobiology, and sociology. Polygamy can be defined as any "form of marriage in which a person has more than one spouse simultaneously. Polygamy can be divided into two types. One is polygyny where a man marries more than one woman, and the other is polyandry, where a woman marries more than one man. In Islam, limited polygyny is permitted; whereas polyandry is completely prohibited. While from the oxford dictionary, polygamy can be define as the custom of having more than one wife at the same time. This could be explained as a man is allowable to marry more than one wife at a time. To marry more than a wife, man however should fulfill the requirement of it. In Islam, man is allowed to marry more than one, but limited to only four at a time. This is to avoid the prosecutor in a man’s life and also to avoid illegal intersexual course.
Some people talk about polygamy as if Islam was the first to permit it. This is incorrect and a dismissal of history. Many nations and religions before Islam had allowed marrying a great number of women, tens of them, even a hundred, without any conditions or limitations. The Old Testament mentioned that David (Daud) had three hundred women and that Solomon (Sulaiman) had seven hundred, some of whom were wives, while others were concubines. With the advent of Islam, a condition and a limitation were laid on polygamy. The limitation made the maximum number of wives four. Ghilan Ibn Salma became a Muslim while he had ten women, so the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) said to him, "Choose four of them and leave (divorce) the others". [ Transmitted by Al-Termithy (1128) and Ibn Majah (1953) On the authority of Ibn 'Umar] The same thing happened to those who embraced Islam while having eight or five wives; they were ordered by the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) not to keep more than four.
As for the marriage of the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) to nine women, it was something restricted and specified by Allah for him for the Islamic call and for the nation's need of them after his passing away. He lived most of his life with one wife, Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her. That was a glorification by Allah of the Prophet's wives, who chose the way of Allah, His Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) and the afterlife. Therefore, Allah forbade him to marry any others nor to choose another instead of one of his wives. The Almighty says: "It is not lawful for you (to marry other) women after this, nor to change them for other wives even though their beauty attracts you". [Surah 33:52] As for every polygamy, there must be reasons, where some of the reasons are:
1- To fulfill man’s need as the wife could not satisfy the man wants.
2- As a component of justice in the treatment of widows and need to offer fair care to orphans.
1- To fulfill man’s need as the wife could not satisfy the man’s wants.
Allah creates man and women in different ability. There are some who have been created strong, and some have been created weak. The weak person can’t fulfill the strong person’s needs, that is why Allah created man is allowable to marry more than one, that is to fulfill their need who can’t be satisfied by his wife, and in accordance to avoid illegal intersexual course, man is allowed to marry up to four women at a time.
However, for the current time, it can be seen, women are scared or most likely phobia to polygamy, but can’t fulfill their husband’s need, insist not to allow the husband to marry another women, and rather to see her husband to do illegal intersexual course rather than do polygamy. This is not what a Muslim should do. The husband can bring this matter, where the wife object the polygamy, but could not satisfy the husband, to the court to ask permission from the court to do polygamy. Malaysia’s Syari’ah Law allows man to marry another woman as long as there is valid reason for them.
2- As a component of justice in the treatment of widows and needs of fair care to orphans.
Polygamy is allowed because it is also act as a component of justice in the treatment of widows and needs to fair care of the orphans. During the prophet Muhammad S.A.W., there are wars happened, where many man died during the war, and left their child and widow without enough wealth, and no one to take care of them. So, to avoid the widows and the orphan suffering the war effect, the man who still survive and have the ability to take care of the widows and the orphan were encourage to marry the widows and in the same time, to take care of the orphans. This is also to avoid women from indulge in prosecution for reason to take care of their child. These scenarios still happen, even in Malaysia. When people ask the prosecutor, why they do prosecution, the valid reason they have is to give education and survive for their kids. So, the best treatment for this scenario is to encourage men to marry the widow as they could take care and save their descendent for humiliation.
In accordance to allow polygamy, there are conditions that should be followed.
وَأِنْ حِفْتُمْ ألَّا تُقْسِطُواْ فِي الْيَتَلمَى فَانكحُوْا مَا طَا بَ لَكُمْ مِّنَ النِّسَآءِ مَثْنَى وَثُلآثَ وَرُبَاعَ فَاِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُواْ فَوَاحِدَةً أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ ذَآلِكُمْ أَدنَى أَلَّا تَعُولُواْ.
Surah An-Nisa (verse 3)
“And if you have reason to fear that you might not act equitably towards orphans, then marry from among (other) women such as are lawful to you – (even)two, three, or four; but if you have reason to fear that you might not able to treat them equal fairness, then (only)one – or (from among) those women whom you rightfully posses. This will make it more likely that you will not deviate from the right course.”
The first imperative in this verse is to deal justly with orphans, and directed towards the male guardians who would be managing the property or wealth on their behalf. Marriage to female orphans is only advocated if and when the guardian fears that he will not be able to carry out his duty honestly. The assumption is that marriage to the orphan will give the husband a greater stake in carrying out his financial responsibility towards her. It does not by any means represent a requirement for all male guardians to marry their female wards.
Secondly, the verse emphasizes justice towards the wife/wives as well. In other words, polygamy is only possible if the husband will be able to treat his wives justly. Otherwise, he is to marry only one wife, or even a female slave. The key theme is to prevent him from doing injustice towards the woman (or women) concerned.
Other than that, this verse also shows the importance of being ad’l. Ad’l is required in order for a man to be permitted to have more than one wife is that he should treat his wives equally in terms of:
1- Alimony
2- Maintenance
3- Fair distribution of cohabitation among wives.
No comments:
Post a Comment