Polygamy: Embarrassing to Middle-Easterners Too

The Muslims who press for polygamy in the western countries are a source of embarrassment to millions of their own fellow Muslims throughout the world. 1400 years after the domination of Islam, not even one percent (1%) of Muslims supports polygamy. One reason for this is that since Muhammad, the best man humanity has ever known according to Islam, was unsuccessful with his multiple wives, it would be very unlikely, almost impossible, for his followers to be successful with their wives. To rescue themselves and their societies from the Islamic decree of polygamy, Muslims in the Middle-East have shown that the actions of Muhammad and his immediate successors are irrelevant to their own lives. Because of fear from Islam, Muslims do not have any choice but to justify what Muhammad and those after him did, but even the way they justify the polygamous lives of their prophet and other leaders is done in such a way as to excuse their families from polygamy. Their justification is that Muhammad and his successors were righteous men closer to Allah than they themselves are, and therefore able to treat their multiple wives equally.

Polygamy wouldn’t be practiced in the Middle-East if the religious leaders did not impose themselves on people, as they are trying to do in the western countries. Due to the influence of the western life in Middle-Eastern countries throughout the previous decades and Muslims’ strong disinterest in polygamy, almost all Islamic countries have made polygamy conditional, ignoring the expectation of Islam. One condition is that you need to get permission from your wife for the second marriage. Did Muhammad or his successors ask permission from any of their wives for their next marriage? The other one is that the age of marriage is higher than the recommendation of Muhammad. Time and time again he encouraged his followers to marry little girls in order to justify his marriage with the little girl, Aisha.

The reality is that if a Muslim man aims to have a second wife, he will receive extreme opposition from his own family members. Why? Because polygamy among Muslim leaders was the cause of political, social, moral and economic disasters in Islam’s history since the rise of Islam.

The following verses and comments of Muhammad regarding women give some insight into why he was unsuccessful in his polygamous marriage and did not leave a good legacy for Islamic societies. Once Muhammad said, “The best of you is he who is best to his wife” (Tirmidhi & Ibn Majah). As he offers no specific answer for this, allow me to provide you with some statements directly from Muhammad and his Qur’an:

• Among the Believers (Muslims) are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah… (Q.33:23).
• They ask thee (Muhammad) concerning women’s courses. Say: They are a hurt and a pollution: … (Q.2:222).
• Women are discouraged from going outside the house (Q.33:33), but if they go, they must cover themselves in order not to be recognized (Q.33:59).
• Muhammad once said to a woman: ‘Watch how you treat your husband for he is your Paradise and your Hell (Suyuti, commenting on Q.4:34)
• Husbands can beat their wives (Q.4:34; 38:44)
• Wives should not be saddened for anything you may give/tell them (Q.33:51)
• Muhammad struck his favorite wife, Aisha, in the chest one evening when she left the house without his permission. Aisha narrates, "He struck me on the chest which caused me pain.” (Muslim :: Book 4 : Hadith 2127 )
• Muhammad said: “Never will succeed such a nation as makes a woman their ruler” (Bukhari: Volume 9: Book 88: Hadith 219).
• If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way (Q.4:15).

But the punishment for men with the same crime is so different if they simply repent:

• If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, Leave them alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful (Q.4:16)

There are hundreds of other references which I am not able to refer to here, some of which are highly disrespectful towards women.
1400 years of bloodshed between Sunnis and Shiites started with the problems arising from Muhammad’s polygamy. As Abraham’s problem in marriage caused hatred and bloodshed between the descendents of Ishmael (Arabs) and Isaac (Jews), the polygamous marriage of Muhammad has also caused innumerous bloody wars that Sunnis and Shiites were not able to get over.
There were a number of things which Muhammad did that made his wives unhappy, one significant thing being that throughout war time, Muhammad slept with some of the female captives, even in the war zone. Sometimes, he had a wife only for a night (called temporary marriage). As a result of his wives’ discontent, Allah revealed verses to him threatening his wives with divorce if they did not keep quiet (Q.66:3-5). Even his most favorite young wife, Aisha, said to Muhammad several times that Allah was always interested in pleasing himself alone. In one case, two men found Aisha guilty of adultery, which created the chaos between the later established Sunnis and Shiites. This made Muhammad unhappy of course and he did not speak to his wife for a month. He consulted his son-in-law, Ali, who was in favour of a divorce (Bukhari :: Volume 9 :: Book 92 :: Hadith 462). On the other hand, Muhammad was under pressure from her father, Abu Bakr, who was Muhammad’s right hand man and therefore did not dare to apply the punishment for adultery on her. He was trying to find a way to release himself from his duty. He eventually received a verse from Allah that four men are needed to witness adultery (Q.24:13), not two. This made Ali unhappy and eventually created a huge chasm between the family of Ali and Abu Bakr and thereby between Shiites and Sunnis. Just immediately after the death of Muhammad, there was a bloody war between friends of Ali and of Aisha.
Shiites still call Aisha an adulterer. I have even witnessed ceremonies, in Iran, where scarecrows of Abu Bakr (Aisha’s father) and Omar (the second successor and father-in-law) are burnt to express hatred towards these top leaders. No Shiite would name his daughter Aisha. For practicing Sunnis, Shiite women and girls are categorized as slaves, as is also the case for practicing Shiites towards Sunni women and girls. This explains why Zarqavy, the master mind of Al Qaedah, issued in an internet order in Iraq that female Shiites (including wives) are the property of Sunni men and belong to them.
The above will attest to the influence of Muhammad’s polygamy within the Middle-Eastern communities. The affects of polygamy in Muhammad’s time has largely contributed to the wars among Muslims throughout the history of Islam. Coming from a polygamous family, I know from my own experience that the injustice, discrimination, jealousy and unfairness towards ladies in Islam do not match the marital values of Christianity. Westerners need to wake up and reject the lies of those Muslims who press on for polygamy in the West.