Salaam Susi,
I do not think that anything is being made easier or more favourable for the Prophet in this aspect or in any other. I think quite the opposite. He and his noble wives had to pay de price of a transition from a society, which like many other societies permitted the men who had the power or the means to "buy" for themselves the wives they wanted. The poligamy for the lower classes, whether legally admitted or not is not the rule. So we are talking mostly about powerful or relatively rich people. Of course there is also the possibility of getting a plurality of wives to work for you if you are poor. But for that you have to find th women in the conditions, or be very clever or incredibly attractive. That will always be the exception, because if the number of women approaches the number of men, if some men are poligamous, obviously there are not eneough women left for all the others even to be monogamous. If you add to that those girls that were buried alived because they did not fit the parents expectations, we may conclude the poligamy is a matter of well off men or powerful men. Or where we deal with really kind people of very kind men sought by parents for their daughters because of their kindness or sought by the women themselves as a better alternative to more hazardous choices.
As a kind man, particularly in a world of harshness, the prophet may have been a very good prospect, add to that when he became chief and powerful... poligamy being a quite respectable practice, how could the prophet reject proposals and alliances from other powerfuls or from friends or from believers in distress that would be good for the believers and besides if he was known to be patient and kind and the women themselves did not object or even were quite willing. Did they have a better proposition. As to those who sougght his alliance would have been insulted if he turned them down and may be become his enemies to the believers disadvantage. For the prophet those were burdens more than privileges.
Poligamy, either masculine or feminine, is not prohibited in the Qur'an, but instead, men and women are told to marry the single, and the marriage contemplated all along in the Qur'an is the monogamous marriage.
The allowance for keeping more than one wife in the Qur'an, where do you see that it was exclusively for the Prophet? I have not read anywhere that those that had already several wives were forced to give them up. I think that the idea is to phase it out. The "marry the single" should do that. But the Prophet is told no to give up any wife of those he had nor to get new ones nor to exchange any. In fact he is deprived of all freedom on that count. His wives are told to choose the dazzle of this world or the Divine pleasure. Those who chose to remain with the prophet and give up the glitter of this world are forbidden to marry even after the Prophet dies. Only them, not other women, but they were given to choose. That was the phasing out of poligamy and that is how it was avoided that being the spouse of the prophet could be later used to gain power and give rise to internal strife amongst muslism. There came strife anyway, but imagine if there have been the possibility of other men succeeding the prophet as husbands of his wives, strife squared. At least that is the way I see it.
Also those women (the wives ofthe prophet) are not called by God "mothers of the believers" for nothing. They were given to choose and they chose God. They could have paradeed around their new standing as great ladies an rulers, and they did not. That is really an example of being true to the values that are embraced. Things were made for them twice as hard as for others. They were not prizes for the Prophet for his greater glory, they were companions of the prophet in the highest spiritual struggle and sense, along with the good companions. If we deserve to be called their children, we will also always choose God over anything. Remark that the rophet was not called father of anybody, but his own blood children but his wives are called mothers of the believers. Do we realise what that means?
So, if the prophet had been an arrogant brat, the many women would have been like feathers on his hat (or turban), but since he was a kind, humble, patient man, he also was a companion. They all had to live what they had to live, like we all have to live what we have to live, and they did so with dignity and faithfulness. Today we may have monogamy all over, and in spite of it, how many women are practicing the most denigrating kind of femine poligamty, called by the escapist name of prostitution, a mere disguise, of the exploitation of women in such a way that men escape from being called what consenting husbands are called and of letting fall on the women the stink of their own unfaithful hearts.
And we also have male poligamy, but it is not legal or acknowledged, existent though.
Of course, and thank God, there are also many people who have self respect and are faithful and do not make fun out of male-female association and companionship.
Sorry, I wrote too much.
Salaam
Your dishonesty and sheer ignorance is quite and astonishing feat! The word is "Polygamy".
