Secrets they don t tell about polygamy

    Secrets they don't tell about polygamy 

If you are not a Muslim then probably you may have objection with polygamy

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Status_of_polygamy_worldwide.png

   Polygamous marriages recognized under civil law

   Polygamous marriages recognized under civil law in some regions

   Polygamous marriages performed abroad recognized

   Customary law recognizes polygamous unions

   Issue under political consideration

   No recognition, polygamy legal

   Polygamy illegal

   Polygamy illegal, polygamous marriages constitutionally banned

Polygamy(men having several wives) is considered "unethical" by non-Muslims. Morals evolve with time, we will discuss reasons for that in another blog posts. Previously, Slavery was acceptable while incest not. Slavery was known in civilizations as old as Sumer, as well as in almost every other ancient civilization, including Ancient Egypt and China, Akkadian empire, Babylonia, Ancient Greek, Iran and China and the Roman empire. Several of the Egyptian Pharoahs married their siblings and had several children with them. Incestuous marriages were also seen in the royal houses of ancient Japan  and Korea, Inca Peru, Ancient hawaii,  Central Africa, Mexico and Thailand.  Now it's the opposite. Society don t accept slavery and incest.  So which one of two group of people have correct view of ethics? All of them reached conclusion based on their reasoning. Therefore you can t say one have distorted view of ethics. As you don t have any standard ethical rules to compare it with; no reference point, relative ethics. This is what we call "subjective morality"; each individual have right to decide what is ethical and unethical. Just like Adolf Hitler and other top mass murderers deemed massacre of innocents as acceptable. Here is where Socrates shows up. 

“A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.”
― Socrates

Dear Secular readers, you may stop here now ;)

But if  you hold the view that ethics is objective then ethics can only be derived from revelations of God almighty. None of religion have deemed polygamy as prohibited. Even prophets of Holy Bible had several wives.

• Abraham had three wives (Genesis 16:1, 16:3, 25:1)
• Jacob had four wives (Genesis 29:23, 29:28, 30:4, 30:9)David had at least 18 wives (1 Samuel 18:27, 25:39-44; 2 Samuel 3:3, 3:4-5, 5:13, 12:7-8, 12:24, 16:21-23)
• Solomon had 700 wives (1 Kings 11:3)

The practice of polygamy continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah (960 C.E to 1030 C.E) issued an edict against it. Even though this ruling is against teachings of scripture. 

The Jewish Sephardic communities living in Muslim 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.

What is islamic stance on polygamy?

Islam is only religion that regulated and limited polygamy. 

“And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphan girls then marry (other) women of your choice, two or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one or (slaves) that your right hands possess. That is nearer to prevent you from doing injustice”

[al-Nisa’ 4:3]

Notice "but if you fear that shall not be able to deal justly with them, then only one". If husband is not able to share his money, time, attention and taking care of each wife in equal proportion then he shall only marry one woman so that wives are given equality. If husband falls short in this regard then he is doing injustice. This what skeptics overlook.

What is wisdom behind polygamy for men, wisdom that we can comprehend.

                                                https://countrymeters.info/en/World

It is not that there is more female population compared to men. However, this is usual that soldiers serving army are men. When they die, they leave behind widows. Or women are divorced. These women someone to financially support them but what if women are financially independent? There is no substitute of nature. If you feel hungry, watching television will not finish your hunger but dis attract you for some time. Similarly, we humans have emotional needs from opposite gender, there is no substitute for that.

Loneliness and physical health

• Loneliness increases the likelihood of mortality by 26% (Holt-Lunstad, 2015)
• The effect of loneliness and isolation on mortality is comparable to the impact of well-known risk factors such as obesity, and has a similar influence as cigarette smoking (Holt-Lunstad, 2010)
• Loneliness is associated with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke (Valtorta et al, 2016)
• Loneliness increases the risk of high blood pressure (Hawkley et al, 2010)
• Lonely individuals are also at higher risk of the onset of disability (Lund et al, 2010)

Loneliness and mental health

• Loneliness puts individuals at greater risk of cognitive decline (James et al, 2011)
• One study concludes lonely people have a 64% increased chance of developing clinical dementia (Holwerda et al, 2012)
• Lonely individuals are more prone to depression (Cacioppo et al, 2006) (Green et al, 1992)

But why shall a Muslim male care for woman who he doesn t loves?

 There is "love" and "compassion". Compassion is of greater virtue then love because when you love, you want same treatment in return but when you have compassion, you don t desire anything in return. Love is like exchanging gifts with your freinds/relatives while compassion is like helping a destitute financially and desiring nothing in return. 

But can such couples go along, couples who don t love each other before?

We will discuss this in other post soon, Inshallah.

Therefore, it is concluded that Islam is only religion that have put upper limit of men having wives and wisdom behind this is to foster society to adhere to ethical value as wives is substitute for mistresses and to create a way for men/women to fulfill their emotional needs of opposite gender for which there is no alternative.