TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents................................................................2
Polygamy and Islam ..........................................................3
The Inequality in Numbers ...............................................7
The Willingness of Women .............................................10
The Solution to a Problem rather than a Commandment
............................................................................................13
Unlawful Polygamy.........................................................15
The Islamic Way ...............................................................16
Conclusion ........................................................................18
Notes..................................................................................20

In terms of the birth rate, men and women are
almost equal in number. But subsequently, for a
variety of reasons, the number of men in society
decreases, leaving an excess of women. Now the
question arises as to what should be the solution to
this problem. In view of the inevitability of this
imbalance, how is a healthy relationship between
the sexes to be established? The choice for us,
therefore, is not between monogamy and
polygamy, but rather, between the lawful polygamy
of Islam or the illicit polygamy of non-Islamic
peoples.
One of the commandments given in the Qur’an as a
matter of social organization concerns polygamy,
that is permission for a man to marry up to four
women:
If you fear that you cannot treat orphans with
fairness, then you may marry such women
(widowed) as seem good to you: two, three or four
of them. But if you fear that you cannot do justice,
marry one only.1

Polygamy and Islam
Polygamy and Islam

This verse was revealed after the Battle of Uhud
(Shawwal 3 A.H.) in which seventy Muslims were
martyred. Suddenly, seventy homes in Medina
were bereft of all male members, and the question
arose as to how all these widows and orphans were
to be cared for. This was an acute social problem. It
was solved by the revelation of this verse asking the
people who could afford it to take care of the
orphans, by marrying the widows and keeping their
orphaned children under their guardianship.
The background and wording of this verse appear
to express a commandment that should be only
temporary in effect. That is to say that it applied
only to a particular state of emergency when, due to
loss of men in battle, the number of women
exceeded the number of available men. But the
Qur’an, despite its having been revealed at a
particular time and place, is universal in its
application. One of the great characteristics of the
Qur’an is that it describes eternal realities, with
reference to temporal issues, this commandment
being typical of this special quality of the Qur’an.