As I mentioned earlier, Qur’an is the only religious book on the face of the earth that says ‘marry only one’.  The context of this phrase is the following verse from Surah Nisa of the Glorious Qur’an:

“Marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one.” [Al-Qur’an 4:3]

Before the Qur’an was revealed, there was no upper limit for polygyny and many men had scores of wives, some even hundreds. Islam put an upper limit of four wives. Islam gives a man permission to marry two, three or four women, only on the condition that he deals justly with them. In the same chapter i.e. Surah Nisa verse 129 says:

“Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women....”[Al-Qur’an 4:129]

Therefore polygyny is not a rule but an exception.  Many people are under the misconception that it is compulsory for a Muslim man to have more than one wife.

Broadly, Islam has five categories of Do’s and Don’ts:

‘Fard’ i.e. compulsory or obligatory; ‘Mustahab’ i.e. recommended or encouraged; ‘Mubah’ i.e. permissible or allowed; ‘Makruh’ i.e. not recommended or discouraged; and Haraam’ i.e. prohibited or forbidden. 

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Average Lifespan. By nature males and females are born in approximately the same ratio. A female child has more immunity than a male child. A female child can fight the germs and diseases better than the male child. For this reason, during the pediatric age itself there are more deaths among males as compared to the females.

During wars, there are more men killed as compared to women. More men die due to accidents and diseases than women.  The average life span of females is more than that of males, and at any given time one finds more widows in the world than widowers. (To be continued on Monday)