polygamy in islam :: essays research papers

1. Definition of PolygamyPolygamy means a system of marriage whereby whizz person has to a greater extent than one spouse. Polygamy can be of two types. One is polygyny where a man marries more than one woman, and the other is polyandry, where a woman marries more than one man. In Islam, limited polygyny is permitted whereas polyandry is completely prohibited.Now coming to the original question, why is a man allowed to have more than one wife?2. The Quran is the exactly religious scripture in the world that says,"marry but one".The Quran is the only religious book, on the face of this earth, that contains the phrase marry only one. on that point is no other religious book that instructs men to have only one wife. In none of the other religious scriptures, whether it be the Vedas, the Ramayan, the Mahabharat, the Geeta, the Talmud or the give-and-take does one find a restriction on the number of wives. According to these scriptures one can marry as mevery as one wishes. It was only later, that the Hindu priests and the Christian Church restricted the number of wives to one.Many Hindu religious personalities, according to their scriptures, had multiple wives. King Dashrat, the father of Rama, had more than one wife. Krishna had several(prenominal) wives.In earlier times, Christian men were permitted as many wives as they wished, since the Bible puts no restriction on the number of wives. It was only a hardly a(prenominal) centuries ago that the Church restricted the number of wives to one.Polygyny is permitted in Judaism. According to Talmudic law, Abraham had three wives, and Solomon had hundreds of wives. The practice of polygyny continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah (960 C.E to 1030 C.E) issued an edict against it. The Jewish Sephardic communities living in Moslem countries continued the practice till as late as 1950, until an Act of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel extended the ban on marrying more than one wife.3. Hindus are more polygynous than MuslimsThe report of the Committee of The Status of Woman in Islam, published in 1975 mentions on page numbers 66 and 67 that the percentage of bigamous marriages between the years 1951 and 1961 was 5.06% among the Hindus and only 4.31% among the Muslims. According to Indian law only Muslim men are permitted to have more than one wife. It is illegal for any non-Muslim in India to have more than one wife.