Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Islam

Question: We ask your eminence to kindly inform us about plural marriage and women’s rights in Islam.

Answer: The Noble Book and the Pure Sunnah have come with plural marriage, and the Muslims have agreed on its permissibility. Allah the Exalted said: the verse [Surat al-Nisa: 3].
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) married nine women, and Allah benefited the Muslim community through them, as they brought to it useful knowledge, noble morals, and good manners. Likewise, the two noble prophets, Dawud and Sulayman (peace be upon them), married a large number of women by the permission and legislation of Allah. Many of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and their followers with excellence also practiced this. Plural marriage was known among past civilized nations and among the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance before Islam. Islam came and regulated it, limiting Muslims to four, and permitted the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) more than that for reasons, secrets, and interests that necessitated his specific exemption to exceed four.
In plural marriage—with the pursuit of justice—there are many benefits and great advantages. Among them is the chastity of the man and his enabling of several women to remain chaste. Among them is the increase of offspring, which leads to the increase and strength of the Muslim community, and the increase of those who worship Allah among them. Among them is the support of many women and spending on them. Among them is the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) boasting with them before the nations on the Day of Resurrection, and other numerous benefits known to those who revere the Shari'ah and look into its excellences, rulings, and secrets, and the intense need of the servants for it with the eye of satisfaction, love, reverence, and insight. As for the ignorant or the envious one who looks at the Shari'ah through a dark lens, and looks at the West and the East with both eyes, revering and approving everything that comes from them, such a person is far from knowing the excellences, rulings, and benefits of the Shari'ah, and its care for the interests of the servants, men and women.
The scholars of Islam have mentioned that plural marriage is among the excellences of the Islamic Shari'ah, and among its care for the interests of society and the treatment of its problems. Some of the enemies of Islam have become aware of this matter and have acknowledged the goodness of what the Shari'ah brought in this issue, despite their enmity toward it, as an acknowledgment of the truth and out of necessity to admit it. Among this is what the author of al-Manar quoted in the fourth part of his tafsir, page (360), from the newspaper (London Thawrat) by one of the female writers, the translation of which is summarized as follows:
“Our daughters have become numerous wanderers, and the calamity has spread, and few are those who seek the causes of that. Since I am a woman, I see those daughters and my heart is torn with pity for them and sadness. And what good can my clothes, my sadness, and my wailing do for them, even if all people joined me in it, since there is no benefit except in acting on what benefits this filthy state. Praise be to Allah for the scholar (Tous), for he saw the disease and prescribed for it the medicine that guarantees healing, which is permitting the man to marry more than one woman. Through this means, the calamity will inevitably disappear, and our daughters will become housewives. The entire calamity lies in forcing the European man to be content with one woman. This limitation is what has made our daughters wanderers and thrown them into seeking men’s jobs. The evil will inevitably increase if the man is not permitted to marry more than one woman. What estimate or guess can encompass the number of married men who have illegitimate children, who have become a burden and a charge on human society? If plural marriage were permissible, those children and their mothers would not have suffered the torment and humiliation they are in, and their honor and the honor of their children would have been safe. If women compete with men, it will bring us destruction. Have you not seen that the state of her creation calls out that she has what the man does not have, and he has what she does not have? By permitting plural marriage, every woman becomes a housewife and a mother of legitimate children.”
The author of al-Manar also quoted on page (361) of the same part from another writer who said: “It is better and a lighter calamity for our daughters to work in the houses as servants or like servants, than for them to work in factories, where the daughter becomes stained with filth that destroys the luster of her life forever. Oh, would that our lands were like the lands of the Muslims, with modesty and chastity, and purity where the servant and the slave enjoy the most comfortable life and are treated as the children of the house, and no honor is touched with evil. Yes, it is a disgrace for the lands of the English to make their daughters an example of vices by the abundance of mixing with men. Why do we not strive to make the daughter work in accordance with her natural fitrah, by staying in the house and leaving men’s jobs to the men, for the safety of her honor.” End of quote.
And another said, Gustave Le Bon said: “The system of plural marriage is a good system that raises the moral level in the nations that practice it, increases the bond of families, and grants the woman respect and happiness that she does not find in Europe.”
And the writer Bernard Shaw says: “Europe will be forced to return to Islam before the end of the twentieth century, whether it wills it or not.”
This is some of what I have read of the words of the enemies of Islam regarding the excellences of Islam and plural marriage, and in it is a lesson for every person of understanding, and Allah is the One to be sought for help.