Situations when polygamy is allowed - question on 4:3
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Salaam,
Can someone please help me understand this ayah? I?m not an Arabic speaker, and I?m going by the literal translation from <a href="http//www.internetmosque.net/read/english_translation_of_the_quran_meaning/4/3/">this</a> site. Here?s what they give as the meaning ?
And if you feared that you not be just/equitable in the orphans , so marry what (was) allowed/permitted for you from the women two twos/twos, and threes, and fours, so if you feared that you not be just/equitable, so (marry) one or what your rights owned/possessed, that (is) nearer that you not side away from justice .
I know there are different interpretations on this verse (the site gives these as well), but try as I might, I just cannot come up with a situation where marriage serves as a ?solution? to unjust treatment. So here are my questions -
- What is the ?unjust? behaviour referred to here ? is it financial?
- If not, what else?
- If you think you?re not going to be just with orphans, how does marriage (whether it is with the orphans themselves or their mothers or someone else) help?
Basically, what exactly is the problem referred to here and what is God?s solution?
Losing a bit of sleep over this one ) Please help!
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You have to read the verse in context, including the preceding verse, and also, to be quite frank, in order to really understand the Quran and avoid confusion, you need to read the classical commentaries like Tafsir Ibn Jarir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, and Tafsir Jalalayn, in order to know what's going on.
Basically the verse is saying that dealing justly with orphans under your care or guardianship, in terms of finance in particular, guarding their wealth as a trust, is a very important thing which cannot be taken lightly. Oppressing or being unjust with an orphan is an extremely big sin.
So if you are afraid that you don't have the capability to be perfectly just with an orphan if you were to marry her, then in that case you may marry other women who are not orphans, and furthermore, you may marry up to four women.
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Some verses of Qur'an like 43 can't be understood without taking a few verses before and after into consideration.
In 42, mankind, the community is enjoined to maintain justice to orphans, devouring not their inheritance. Now, 'orphans' here represent kids with only a mother or kids without both mother and father. You can check Qur'an A Reformist translation.
43, if for any reason there is fear that the community may not deal justly with these orphans, it is adviceable to marry the 'orphaned women' in order to bring the helpless orphans and their mother closer to a you to protect their rights properly. But then again, if as a man you fear you may not be capable of handling polygamy justly, then stick with only one wife.
4127
Those to be married according to these verses are not orphan girls as the traditionalists interprete, they are orphaned women i.e women with orphans(kids who lost their father). -
Hellow Neptin.
Salam. Can you elaborate a bit on your understanding on exactly how marrying women with orphans(kids who lost their father) as a second, third wife etc. helps equitable treatment to orphans?
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The orphan's property (e.g. property left by the father of the orphan) still needs to be preserved and handed over to them, right? Does this act become any easier if one marries their mother? To me it seems the task may actually get even complicated as one may think by virtue of one being a step-father one has the right to consume those property.
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The step father's property is not going to go directly to the orphan children as successor either - at best they may get a small share indirectly through their mother.
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If someone really possesses the heart to take care of step children as his own children, he should well be able to take care of a dead friend's children like his own children.
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A person may fancy it will be easier for him to take care of step-children, but he is also going to gift the orphans a step mother. What is the guarantee the children will not face unwarranted hostility from the step mother?
I actually used to have opinion similar to you - but somehow this does not add up. So I have thought through the verse again and again and rectified my earlier stance.
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My current understanding of 43 -
But if you fear that you would not be able to deal equitably concerning orphans (i.e. ensure that orphans legitimately inherit the wealth left by their parents) then marry (i.e. as opposed to have sexual relationship outside marriage - which potentially leaves unsecured children without legitimate claim upon wealth of their parents), who is agreeable for you of the women (i.e. women who mutually agree to marry you) in twos or threes or fours. But if you fear that you would not deal evenly (i.e. among multiple spouses), then (only) one or (be content with) the one whom possesses your right hand (i.e. who has already attained the legitimate status of your spouse). That is closer to you not violating (i.e. that is what Allah recommends for you).
In other words - the verse is merely explaining to mankind in 2 steps - 1) why the institution of marriage is necessary and 2) why a monogamous marriage is preferable over polygamy.
May Allah guide us all to the straight route.
Regards,
Arman -
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@Arman - bingo! The first part of your post clearly gives the exact same reservation I have about the translations / understandings I've come across so far. Even when you take into consideration the other verses from the Quran, there's no escaping the "if - then" condition here. How does marriage resolve the problem of being unfair to orphans? Odd things to be coupled together, you know??
However I'm not entirely convinced by your current understanding either (as of now, at least). No offense ) In any case it's food for thought. IA the correct understanding will come, by grace of God.
Thanks to everyone who replied and if anyone has different thoughts on this, please do share. Salaam.
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This aya is not speaking about poligamyh at all but about the arrangement of as many marriages may be viable for the mothers of children without fathers. That is arrange and sponsor as many marriages as feasible with the men available for it. Not one man with several, but several marriages of one mother with one man. Does not say that one man marries several women at a time, which is preposterous. there has never been such a thing as a simultaneous marriage with more than one woman at a time. It is the different marriages which are simultaneous.
Salaam
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Peace.
Huruf, can you elaborate your last post on this topic?
Armanaziz, i see only one kind of women treated in this verse; women with orphan. "Other" is not in the verse. To accept your interpretation, a prior verse must have recommended marrying women with orphans but this isn't the case. Besides, you either marry women with orphans or you do not. What is the need for recommending other women for those men not qualified to marry women with orphan? They already know what to do. For those men, 4127 already speaks.
Being just to orphans transcend giving them their inheritance duely. It entails protecting them, feeding, clothing, sheltering and educating them. Not every single mom can take all these and not every society cares of the plight of the destitute widow and orphan. That is why this verse recommend marriage to alleviate the problem. You are more inclined to help orphans if they are your step children than if they are not.
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Salaam neptin, I do not knnow what you want me to elaborate. The aya addresses the community, it does not adress men only, it addresses the whole community and it tells them to see that as many marriages with mothers of hildren without a father are arranged, made possible, sponsored. Money, lack of a home, lack of willingness may be an impediment. the fact that the whole society promotes those marriages with whatever means it can contribute may make it possible that people who might be prevented from marrying the mothers of the orphans by any of those causes, could thus marry them and make respectable and respected families, of course, always provided that those getting married, either the mothers or the pospective husbands did see it without disgust.
Alyatamaa is always translated as orphans because muslims and even those who were not muslims but were int he previous history of muslims seem to have been such decent gentlemen that there never was amongst them any single mothers that were left pregnant by so "decent men". So the injonction is not out of pllace but quite the opposite, the fact that it was an order from God and that it had the support of the whole of society, might move believing men to look differently to the mothers, wheter really widowed or unmarried. So while it is addressed to the whole community, it is also making it clear that men are expected to respond like gentlemen.
Salaam
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Armanaziz, i see only one kind of women treated in this verse; women with orphan. "Other" is not in the verse. To accept your interpretation, a prior verse must have recommended marrying women with orphans but this isn't the case. Besides, you either marry women with orphans or you do not. What is the need for recommending other women for those men not qualified to marry women with orphan? They already know what to do. For those men, 4127 already speaks.
Salam Neptin.
- "i see only one kind of women treated in this verse; women with orphan." - Is this a fact or opinion? Is there any word in the verse that makes you think like this?
- "To accept your interpretation, a prior verse must have recommended marrying women with orphans but this isn't the case." - Why is it so? Qur'an elaborates the cases where marriage is not desirable (422-24); since women with orphan is not one such case - it should be by default okay to marry them. Does Qur'an has a verse to say it is okay to marry women with physical disability?
Being just to orphans transcend giving them their inheritance duely. It entails protecting them, feeding, clothing, sheltering and educating them. Not every single mom can take all these and not every society cares of the plight of the destitute widow and orphan. That is why this verse recommend marriage to alleviate the problem. You are more inclined to help orphans if they are your step children than if they are not.
Well I do not want to argue with you over this. I would just invite you to mentally explore a hypothetical scenario. Let's assume someone close to you - say your father.
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One day your father comes home and says one of his close friends has died over an accident. He feels very bad about the minor children of the friend - so he wants to take care of them both financially and emotonally by regular visits etc. How would you feel? How would your mother feel? How will the society view this arrangement?
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One day your father comes home and says one of his close friends has died over an accident. He feels very bad about the minor children of the friend - so he wants to marry the widow to take care of the orphan children both financially and emotonally. How would you feel? How would your mother feel? How will the society view this arrangement?
Suppose your father asks your opinion to choose between solution 1 and 2 above. Which one would you choose? Why?
I believe you are smart enough to figure out your own answers. Just remember Allah does not burden any soul beyond what it can take.
May Allah guide us all to the straight route.
Regards,
Arman