Hypocrisy is so rampant here that if one were to sit down to pray for this nation he wouldn't know where to start. And the most common form is for men to affirm their rights while ignoring their responsibilities
I am not religious so I am strongly against the practice of polygamy as a whole, but even within a religious context, it’s statistically near impossible to treat your wives with the exact same level of care and affection. The treatment of the majority of women in Pakistan is honestly a deterrent for any Pakistani woman who grew up overseas to want to live in Pakistan.
Your article truly reflects the obsession of Pakistani men with multiple wives,not respecting the rights given to women by Allah.
Religious illiteracy will continue to hurt and haunt our society as long as women of Pakistan will not take charge of their own lives by educating themselves about their rights. Know your Islamic rights before entering a marriage contract.
Here I am not talking about the Middle East, but unfortunately, in our part of the world it is a taboo to talk about a woman’s right of Haq Mehr. Which gives a woman financial security and more respect when she enters a marriage contract. This is a big reason behind women exploitation in marriages in South Asia. Girls families are accused of being greedy when they bring up financial security for their daughters in marriage. Where a man does not feel responsible for providing a good amount of Haq Mehr for his new life partner, which is her right granted by Allah, but only remembers his right of having four wives, things will not change for women in Pakistan. When you set aside a good Mehr for your wife and be a good provider in every sense of the word then you will not desire another wife.
For women, social pressure leading to desperation for marriage and having the status of a married woman in a patriarchal society paves the way for men to have multiple wives. Where women blindly follow the distorted version of Islam that benefits and serves only men. Education in all fields is the only way out to a healthy society and women’s respect!
The Qur’anic verse often cited to permit polygamy, Surah an-Nisā’ 4:3, did not emerge in isolation. It was revealed in the aftermath of the Battle of Uḥud in 625 CE, a time when many Muslim men had died, leaving behind widows and orphans in a tribal society with no formal systems of welfare or protection. In that context, where male guardianship was the only viable form of social security, the verse served as a measured response to a humanitarian crisis, not a license for personal indulgence.
Ibn Kathīr, in his Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm, explains that the verse was revealed to address the vulnerability of orphans and their mothers. Marrying such women was a means of offering them stability and inclusion within a protective family structure. Shīʿa scholar Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabā’ī, writing in Al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān, emphasized that the verse is context-bound and framed by a clear condition. It allows polygamy only if the man can uphold justice. That condition is not rhetorical. It is foundational. If justice cannot be ensured, then polygamy is automatically disqualified.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, polygamy was unlimited and often abusive. Islam intervened by restricting the number of wives to four and placing justice at the center of the arrangement. This was a moral and legal reform. We see a similar principle in how the Qur’an dealt with slavery. Rather than abolishing it outright in a society deeply dependent on it, Islam introduced humane treatment, encouraged manumission, and made emancipation a virtue. Over time, these reforms worked to dismantle the practice from within. Mālikī jurist Al-Qarāfī, in Al-Furūq, stated that legal rulings evolve with custom when they preserve the higher objectives of Sharī‘ah, which are justice, compassion, and public welfare.
The classical legal schools all placed rigorous conditions on polygamy. In the Shāfiʿī tradition, Imām al-Nawawī ruled in Majmūʿ Sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab that absolute equality in time, housing, spending, and emotional attention is required. If there is any doubt that justice can be fulfilled, then polygamy becomes makrūh, or discouraged. Mālikī jurist Ibn Rushd al-Jadd wrote in Al-Muqaddimāt al-Mumahhadāt that polygamy without social necessity is impermissible. From the Ḥanbalī school, Ibn Qudāmah emphasized in Al-Mughnī that the Prophet ﷺ never entered into multiple marriages for personal desire. His reasons were always tied to religious or communal benefit. Shīʿa jurisprudence also echoes this view. Ayatollah Sistani, in Minhāj al-Ṣāliḥīn, holds that emotional equity is a requirement. If it cannot be guaranteed, then temporary marriage (mutʿah) is considered more appropriate than concurrent permanent marriages.
Today, the societal realities that once justified polygamy have changed dramatically. Women are no longer dependent on marriage for economic survival or social identity. They have access to education, employment, legal rights, and welfare protections. Wahbah al-Zuḥaylī, in Al-Fiqh al-Islāmī wa Adillatuhu, made it clear that when the original legal cause no longer exists, the ruling tied to that cause loses its relevance. What was once a socially necessary concession during times of war or famine cannot be transposed into modern settings as a routine marital option.
Unfortunately, in many Muslim societies today, especially in Pakistan, this verse has been extracted from its historical and ethical context. It is often invoked to justify polygamy for reasons far removed from its original purpose. Popular preachers like Mufti Tāriq Masood present it as a divine right, rarely acknowledging the strict Qur’anic conditions or the scholarly consensus surrounding justice and necessity. His rhetoric appeals not to legal reasoning but to male ego. It turns a compassionate legal provision into a tool of domination.
Anthropologist Sadaf Ahmed, in her study Transforming Faith, describes how such interpretations reframe spiritual allowances into male privileges. What Islam intended as a means of social protection becomes a platform for male entitlement. Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious helps explain how mass psychology is susceptible to this kind of message. People gravitate to what affirms their desires. Khaled Abou El Fadl called this trend a corruption of divine intent by human desire. It reflects a deeper crisis not in theology but in how theology is consumed and weaponized.
Islam did not treat polygamy as an ideal. It was a response to extraordinary circumstances, and even then, tightly regulated. In today’s conditions, most cases of polygamy fail the Qur’anic requirement of justice. They do not serve the community. They serve the individual.
Modern scholars from across schools of thought have taken firm positions on this. Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated in Fatāwā Muʿāṣirah that when harm is likely or justice is not possible, polygamy becomes prohibited. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr, in Fiqh al-Usrah, pointed out that the original purpose of polygamy is now served by institutions such as courts, social services, and welfare systems. Continuing the practice without real need risks turning it into injustice, or ẓulm.
Islam builds societies through gradual reform. It improves social conditions over time, not through abrupt overhauls but by transforming norms from within. This is why Islam restricted slavery before abolishing it socially. The same principle applies to polygamy. It was tolerated only under strict ethical and practical conditions. It was never encouraged. It was never meant to be normalized.
Pakistan’s Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961, which requires written permission from the first wife before a man can remarry, reflects this ethical vision. But the law is routinely bypassed because it is not supported by a culture that understands the purpose behind it. Religious illiteracy and the popularity of sensationalist preachers make legal reform toothless unless accompanied by cultural transformation.
The Prophet ﷺ said, "The best of you are those who are best to their wives" (Ibn Mājah). That is the yardstick. Not how many wives one can collect, but how one treats the wife he already has. Without justice, polygamy is not Sunnah. It is betrayal under the guise of religiosity. Quoting the verse without its context does not make a man religious. It makes him manipulative.
When someone says, "Islam allows four wives," ask them if they are willing to uphold the standard of ‘adl set by the Qur’an. Ask them if they understand the social reasons behind the original ruling. Ask them if they are following the example of the Prophet ﷺ or merely chasing their own desires. If the answer is the latter, then they are not practicing Islam. They are exploiting it.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz once wrote of "this leprous daybreak, dawn’s night-fanged carcass," describing the kind of false hope that looks like renewal but carries decay. We risk the same when we turn divine law into a slogan. The dawn we need will not rise through unearned permissions or self-serving interpretations. It will come when we return to the heart of Islam—justice, compassion, dignity, and restraint.
Nicely written. Religious illiteracy is the root cause of so many issues in Pakistan or rather in our Pakistani culture.
So true unfortunately. Thank you!
Hypocrisy is so rampant here that if one were to sit down to pray for this nation he wouldn't know where to start. And the most common form is for men to affirm their rights while ignoring their responsibilities
Unfortunately very true :/ explains a lot
So insightful. Hopefully this culture molds itself into something kinder to women
I am not religious so I am strongly against the practice of polygamy as a whole, but even within a religious context, it’s statistically near impossible to treat your wives with the exact same level of care and affection. The treatment of the majority of women in Pakistan is honestly a deterrent for any Pakistani woman who grew up overseas to want to live in Pakistan.
sadly :(
Your article truly reflects the obsession of Pakistani men with multiple wives,not respecting the rights given to women by Allah.
Religious illiteracy will continue to hurt and haunt our society as long as women of Pakistan will not take charge of their own lives by educating themselves about their rights. Know your Islamic rights before entering a marriage contract.
Here I am not talking about the Middle East, but unfortunately, in our part of the world it is a taboo to talk about a woman’s right of Haq Mehr. Which gives a woman financial security and more respect when she enters a marriage contract. This is a big reason behind women exploitation in marriages in South Asia. Girls families are accused of being greedy when they bring up financial security for their daughters in marriage. Where a man does not feel responsible for providing a good amount of Haq Mehr for his new life partner, which is her right granted by Allah, but only remembers his right of having four wives, things will not change for women in Pakistan. When you set aside a good Mehr for your wife and be a good provider in every sense of the word then you will not desire another wife.
For women, social pressure leading to desperation for marriage and having the status of a married woman in a patriarchal society paves the way for men to have multiple wives. Where women blindly follow the distorted version of Islam that benefits and serves only men. Education in all fields is the only way out to a healthy society and women’s respect!
The Qur’anic verse often cited to permit polygamy, Surah an-Nisā’ 4:3, did not emerge in isolation. It was revealed in the aftermath of the Battle of Uḥud in 625 CE, a time when many Muslim men had died, leaving behind widows and orphans in a tribal society with no formal systems of welfare or protection. In that context, where male guardianship was the only viable form of social security, the verse served as a measured response to a humanitarian crisis, not a license for personal indulgence.
Ibn Kathīr, in his Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm, explains that the verse was revealed to address the vulnerability of orphans and their mothers. Marrying such women was a means of offering them stability and inclusion within a protective family structure. Shīʿa scholar Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabā’ī, writing in Al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān, emphasized that the verse is context-bound and framed by a clear condition. It allows polygamy only if the man can uphold justice. That condition is not rhetorical. It is foundational. If justice cannot be ensured, then polygamy is automatically disqualified.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, polygamy was unlimited and often abusive. Islam intervened by restricting the number of wives to four and placing justice at the center of the arrangement. This was a moral and legal reform. We see a similar principle in how the Qur’an dealt with slavery. Rather than abolishing it outright in a society deeply dependent on it, Islam introduced humane treatment, encouraged manumission, and made emancipation a virtue. Over time, these reforms worked to dismantle the practice from within. Mālikī jurist Al-Qarāfī, in Al-Furūq, stated that legal rulings evolve with custom when they preserve the higher objectives of Sharī‘ah, which are justice, compassion, and public welfare.
The classical legal schools all placed rigorous conditions on polygamy. In the Shāfiʿī tradition, Imām al-Nawawī ruled in Majmūʿ Sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab that absolute equality in time, housing, spending, and emotional attention is required. If there is any doubt that justice can be fulfilled, then polygamy becomes makrūh, or discouraged. Mālikī jurist Ibn Rushd al-Jadd wrote in Al-Muqaddimāt al-Mumahhadāt that polygamy without social necessity is impermissible. From the Ḥanbalī school, Ibn Qudāmah emphasized in Al-Mughnī that the Prophet ﷺ never entered into multiple marriages for personal desire. His reasons were always tied to religious or communal benefit. Shīʿa jurisprudence also echoes this view. Ayatollah Sistani, in Minhāj al-Ṣāliḥīn, holds that emotional equity is a requirement. If it cannot be guaranteed, then temporary marriage (mutʿah) is considered more appropriate than concurrent permanent marriages.
Today, the societal realities that once justified polygamy have changed dramatically. Women are no longer dependent on marriage for economic survival or social identity. They have access to education, employment, legal rights, and welfare protections. Wahbah al-Zuḥaylī, in Al-Fiqh al-Islāmī wa Adillatuhu, made it clear that when the original legal cause no longer exists, the ruling tied to that cause loses its relevance. What was once a socially necessary concession during times of war or famine cannot be transposed into modern settings as a routine marital option.
Unfortunately, in many Muslim societies today, especially in Pakistan, this verse has been extracted from its historical and ethical context. It is often invoked to justify polygamy for reasons far removed from its original purpose. Popular preachers like Mufti Tāriq Masood present it as a divine right, rarely acknowledging the strict Qur’anic conditions or the scholarly consensus surrounding justice and necessity. His rhetoric appeals not to legal reasoning but to male ego. It turns a compassionate legal provision into a tool of domination.
Anthropologist Sadaf Ahmed, in her study Transforming Faith, describes how such interpretations reframe spiritual allowances into male privileges. What Islam intended as a means of social protection becomes a platform for male entitlement. Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious helps explain how mass psychology is susceptible to this kind of message. People gravitate to what affirms their desires. Khaled Abou El Fadl called this trend a corruption of divine intent by human desire. It reflects a deeper crisis not in theology but in how theology is consumed and weaponized.
Islam did not treat polygamy as an ideal. It was a response to extraordinary circumstances, and even then, tightly regulated. In today’s conditions, most cases of polygamy fail the Qur’anic requirement of justice. They do not serve the community. They serve the individual.
Modern scholars from across schools of thought have taken firm positions on this. Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated in Fatāwā Muʿāṣirah that when harm is likely or justice is not possible, polygamy becomes prohibited. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr, in Fiqh al-Usrah, pointed out that the original purpose of polygamy is now served by institutions such as courts, social services, and welfare systems. Continuing the practice without real need risks turning it into injustice, or ẓulm.
Islam builds societies through gradual reform. It improves social conditions over time, not through abrupt overhauls but by transforming norms from within. This is why Islam restricted slavery before abolishing it socially. The same principle applies to polygamy. It was tolerated only under strict ethical and practical conditions. It was never encouraged. It was never meant to be normalized.
Pakistan’s Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961, which requires written permission from the first wife before a man can remarry, reflects this ethical vision. But the law is routinely bypassed because it is not supported by a culture that understands the purpose behind it. Religious illiteracy and the popularity of sensationalist preachers make legal reform toothless unless accompanied by cultural transformation.
The Prophet ﷺ said, "The best of you are those who are best to their wives" (Ibn Mājah). That is the yardstick. Not how many wives one can collect, but how one treats the wife he already has. Without justice, polygamy is not Sunnah. It is betrayal under the guise of religiosity. Quoting the verse without its context does not make a man religious. It makes him manipulative.
When someone says, "Islam allows four wives," ask them if they are willing to uphold the standard of ‘adl set by the Qur’an. Ask them if they understand the social reasons behind the original ruling. Ask them if they are following the example of the Prophet ﷺ or merely chasing their own desires. If the answer is the latter, then they are not practicing Islam. They are exploiting it.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz once wrote of "this leprous daybreak, dawn’s night-fanged carcass," describing the kind of false hope that looks like renewal but carries decay. We risk the same when we turn divine law into a slogan. The dawn we need will not rise through unearned permissions or self-serving interpretations. It will come when we return to the heart of Islam—justice, compassion, dignity, and restraint.