Transliteration:( Wa in khiftum allaa tuqsitoo fil yataamaa fankihoo maa taaba lakum minan nisaaa'i masnaa wa sulaasa wa rubaa'a fa'in khiftum allaa ta'diloo fawaahidatan aw maa malakat aimaanukum; zaalika adnaaa allaa ta'ooloo )
"And if you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls [9], marry those who seem good to you—two, three, or four [10]. But if you fear that you will not be just [to all of them], then [marry] only one [11], or [have] those whom your right hand owns [12]. That is more suitable to prevent you from doing injustice."
Some men would marry orphan girls under their care solely for the sake of their wealth, showing no true interest in them. As a result, they were not fulfilling the rights of wifehood due to them.
To stop this injustice and exploitation, the above verse was revealed. The Divine command is clear: marry those women whom you approve of, not merely for their wealth.
This order regarding the limit of wives does not apply to the Holy Prophet ﷺ. Whatever number of wives the Prophet chose to marry was lawful for him.
It should be remembered that permission to marry up to four wives is granted because:
The female population exceeds the male,
Many men die in battles,
Without this rule, many women would remain unmarried,
It allows for a healthy increase in population, and
Nations today are built on majority, i.e., population strength.
However, it is not permissible for a woman to marry more than one husband, because:
It would cause confusion in lineage,
One would not know who the actual father is,
And no one would know who is responsible for care and maintenance of the child.
Any person who is unable to provide equal treatment and rights to multiple wives is forbidden from marrying more than one.
Although unequal treatment is considered a sinful act,
The Nikah (marriage) and the children born from such marriages remain lawful.
There is no specified limit on keeping maids or slave girls (those whom the right hand owns).
However, the rights of these women are not equal to those of a wife.
They are not entitled to wifehood rights, nor are those rights incumbent upon the master.
The tafsir of Surah Nisa verse 3 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Nisa ayat 2 which provides the complete commentary from verse 2 through 4.
(4:3) If you fear that you might not treat the orphans justly, then marry the women that seem good to you: two, or three, or four.[4] If you fear that you will not be able to treat them justly, then marry (only) one,[5] or marry from among those whom your right hands possess.[6] This will make it more likely that you will avoid injustice.
4. Commentators have explained this in the following ways:
(i) There is the view of ‘A’ishah who says that men tended to marry orphan girls who were under their guardianship out of consideration for either their property, beauty or because they thought they would be able to treat them according to their whims, as they had no one to protect them. After marriage such men sometimes committed excesses against these girls. It is in this context that the Muslims are told that if they fear they will not be able to do justice to the orphan girls, then they should marry other girls whom they like. This interpretation seems to be supported by (Surah An-Nisa, ayat 127) of this surah.
(ii) The second view is that of Ibn ‘Abbas and his disciple ‘Ikrimah who expressed the opinion that in the Jahiliyah period there was no limit on the number of wives a man could take. The result was that a man sometimes married as many as ten women and, when expenses increased because of a large family, he encroached on the rights either of his orphan nephews or other relatives. It was in this context that God fixed the limit of four wives and instructed the Muslims that they may marry up to four wives providing they possessed the capacity to treat them equitably.
(iii) Sa’id b. Jubayr, Qatadah and some other commentators say that while the Arabs of the Jahiliyah period did not approve of subjecting orphans to wrong, they had no concept of justice and equity with regard to women. They married as many women as they wanted and then subjected them to injustice and oppression. It is in this context that people are told that if they fear perpetrating wrongs on orphans they ought to be equally worried about perpetrating them on women. In the first place they should never marry more than four, and of those four, they should marry only as many as they can treat fairly.
Each of the three interpretations is plausible and all three may possibly be correct. Moreover, the verse could also mean that if a person does not find himself able to treat orphans in a fair manner, then he might as well marry the women who are looking after those orphans.
5. Muslim jurists are agreed that according to this verse the maximum number Of wives has been fixed at four. This conclusion is also supported by traditions. It is reported that when Ghaylan, the chief of Ta’if, embraced Islam he had nine wives. The Prophet (peace be on him) ordered him to keep only four wives and divorce the rest. Another person, Nawfal b. Mu’awiyah, had five wives. The Prophet (peace be on him) ordered him to divorce one of them. (For the relevant traditions see the comments of Ibn Kathir and Qurtubi on this verse – Ed.)
This verse stipulates that marrying more wives than one is permissible on the condition that one treats his wives equitably. A person who avails himself of this permission granted by God to have a plurality of wives, and disregards the condition laid down by God to treat them equitably has not acted in good faith with God. In case there are complaints from wives that they are not being treated equitably, the Islamic state has the right to intervene and redress such grievances.
Some people who have been overwhelmed and overawed by the Christianized outlook of Westerners have tried to prove that the real aim of the Qur’an was to put an end to polygamy (which, in their opinion, is intrinsically evil). Since it was widely practised at that time, however, Islam confined itself to placing restrictions on it. Such arguments only show the mental slavery to which these people have succumbed. That polygamy is an evil per se is an unacceptable proposition, for under certain conditions it becomes a moral and social necessity. If polygamy is totally prohibited men who cannot remain satisfied with only one wife will look outside the bounds of matrimonial life and create sexual anarchy and corruption. This is likely to cause much greater harm than polygamy to the moral and social order. For this reason the Qur’an has allowed those who feel the need for it to resort to polygamy. Those who consider it an evil in itself may certainly denounce it in disregard of the Qur’an and may even argue for its abolition. But they have no right to attribute such a view to the Qur’an, for it has expressed its permission of polygamy in quite categorical terms. Indeed, there is not the slightest hint in the Qur’an that could justify the conclusion that it advocates abolition of polygamy. (For further elaboration see my book, Sunnat k A’iniHaythiyat, Lahore, 3rd edition, 1975, pp. 307-16.)
6. This expression denotes ‘slave-girls’, i.e. female captives of war who are distributed by the state among individuals. The purpose of this verse is to tell men that if their financial circumstances do not permit them to support a free woman as their wife then they may marry a slave-girl (see verse 25 below); if they consider it necessary to have more than one wife and it would be difficult for them to treat their free wives equitably they may resort to slave-girls, for here the burden of obligations is lighter by comparison. (For further injunctions regarding slave-girls seen. 44 below.)
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