Dealing Justly with Wives and Orphans (Qur'an 4:3): Difference between revisions

Basic meaning of this verse

A common explanation for 4:3 is to give the above partial quote of the verse and explain that a Muslim man may marry up to four women. However, if he cannot deal justly with each of the wives then he has, he is forbidden to marry that many; and can marry only one wife, to prevent treating women unfairly. Muslims explain that the use of the word "Justice" or "Justly" (depending on which translation is being used) refers to the man's ability to treat each of his wives exactly the same in every regard: not just materially (i.e. food, clothing, shelter, time, money, etc.) but also that he must be able to love them all exactly the same. He must be able to feel the same amount of affection and love for each of his wives.

If he cannot do this, then, according to the Qur'an he cannot marry more than one wife.

The injunction against polygamy

Some apologists will provide more evidence to back up their interpretation of 4:3 by giving the partial quote of 4:129 as above. Since Allah says that you can only marry (up to) four women if you can deal Justly with them, and in 4:129, Allah tells us that men are unable to deal Justly with more than one wife. This means that men are generally not allowed to engage in polygamy. However, Allah included the allowance for multiple wives under specific circumstances. These include war, gender imbalance in certain regions/countries and women's preference.

After a war where a lot of men are killed, there are usually much higher numbers of women alive than men. In this case, men are permitted to take more than one wife, in order to reproduce at a faster rate than normal in order to repopulate the region. Women are more prevalent in some areas of the world, and men are also allowed to marry multiple wives when this is the situation, in order to ensure that every woman has a male partner and doesn't have to fend for herself. Some women also prefer to be a second, third or fourth wife; thus polygamy is also allowed in order to accommodate the desires of these women.

But as a general rule, as stated, men are prohibited from engaging in polygamy unless absolutely necessary.

'Qur'an-only' explanation

The few who reject the ahadith altogether, except when it is necessary in order to explain an Islamic Pillar, give an explanation of 4:3 as being an injunction against polygamy under any circumstances. They back their claim up by quoting 4:129

The reasoning continues that a man can never treat his wives equally, thus 4:3 means: Don't treat orphans unfairly, by marrying their mothers in order to gain access to the wealth that the orphans will inherit when they come of age. Then 4:3 changes the topic, mid ayat and tells men that they can marry up to four free (believing) women, but if they cannot treat them fairly, then they can marry only one. Then 4:3 goes back to who they are allowed to marry, and says they may also marry captives (from their right hands), but that the injunction from the previous part of the verse still applies.

i.e. don't mistreat orphans by marrying their mothers to get their wealth >> Men can marry believing women; 2 or 3 or 4 >> If you can't treat them all exactly the same (fairly) then they can only marry one. >> Men can also marry their captives but "treat them fairly" rule still applies.

Problems with the apologetic interpretation

The main issue with the above interpretation of 4:3 and the claim regarding 4:129, is that proponents of these interpretations must quote the verses out of context in order to "explain the meaning." They quote a small portion of the verse(s) and and use it to suit the explanation. However the interpretation that they give ignores the majority of the verse(s); and renders the whole verse(s) nonsensical if read in context.

Those who explain the two verses completely as an injunction against polygamy would have to dismiss all sahih ahadith as not being authentic, for no other reason than it contradicts their own interpretation of the verse. They would also have to admit that 4:3 is badly written and not clear in its intended meaning. By doing this, they would contradict the Muslim belief that the Qur'an is a perfect literary masterpiece, that could not have been written by any human being. In order for the Qur'an to remain the "literary masterpiece" claimed, and this explanation to be correct, the verse would be more properly written thus:

Most apologists, because of this, will avoid answering any questions as to the meaning of the whole verse(s) in order to stick to their own interpretation.

Evidence From sahih ahadith as to the meaning of 4:3

The true meaning of Qur'an 4:3 is explained to us by Aisha in Bukhari's Sahih ahadith collection:

Evidence from tafsir's regarding 4:3

Although the ahadith above do not discuss the verse in its entirety, the tafsirs do. It is important to note that Aisha and the tafsir writers have defined "justice" for us. Kathir even makes it plain that 4:3 is not referring to perfect justice, so th alleged injunction against polygamy is invalid. As "justice" is used twice in the verse in connection with two different types of women (orphans and free women) it is apparent that Justice means the same thing both times it is used. It would be incorrect to assume that "justice" means mahr in relation to orphans and something else for free women given the context of the verse. One more verse that needs to be considered in order to understand 4.3 is as follows:

In light of all the information provided above, if we wish to give Qur'an 4.3 its full expansive meaning it would read something like this:

Quran 4:3 has nothing to do with treating your wives equally, its about the orphan's and their Mahr. Injustice in this verse is talking about financial equality regarding bride price (for orphans) and financial viability of having that many wives, not equality between them.

Dividing the ayah into several pieces will make it easier to get a grip on an alternative view, which is not related to the mahr story in any way.

And if you fear that you cannot act equitably towards orphans ...

An orphan (yateem) is a child whose father is unknown. This can be the result of any of the situations listed below:

1. Father is dead
2. Father can not be found in any way
3. Mother has been raped or had sex with another man during pregnancy
4. Child is the result of adultery (zina)
5. Child is of a maid bought or enslaved at war
6. Child is the result of adultery (zina) of a maid with a man other than her owner
7. Child is the result of permitted adultery of a maid with a man other than her owner

Free orphans can be protected by other males whether they are related or not to the child. If a woman marries another man after her husband dies or somehow becomes untraceable, her orphans (underage children) will also be under the protection of the new father. Orphans of slaves are also slaves. But if a maid gives birth to a child of her owner, then the child is free.

According to Abu Dawud, a child can not be called an orphan after reaching the age of puberty.^[1] Puberty can only be understood when the child experiences his first nocturnal ejaculation (wet dream) during his sleep if it's a boy or has her first period if it's a girl.

So, the orphans that are subject to marriage are underage girls. Of course Islam does not have strict rules limiting the age of marriage, and as seen with Muhammad's marriage to Aisha, marriage to very young girls were also a common practice among early Muslims.

Mahr is by definition

In fact it can be any goods of certain value that both the groom and the bride or bride's protector (her father, brothers, owner etc.) agree on. In this scenario, where a man wants to marry the child under his protection, both sides of the agreement are either the protector, or the protector and an underage child which is still at the early stages of mental development with no prior experience of marriage or mahr agreement. Therefore not paying mahr "justly" is definitely not an issue here.

but if you fear that you will not do justice (between them), then (marry) only one ...

In this part, the mahr is one of the possible reasons for the injustice. Marriage requires paying mahr, and paying different amount of mahr to several women may cause problems between the wives. Also it is possible that problems similar to those between Muhammad and his wives may occur. Therefore, here it means

or what your right hands possess ...

Many times in the Qur'an, maids and slaves are referred to as "what your right hand possess".

Summary

It is clear that the ayah is not in any way about paying an underage child the mahr justly, but about fulfilling one's sexual needs. But why would fulfilling sexual needs scare a man as long as he marries the orphan child legally? Who are those orphans?

• They are not the orphan step daughters of the man, for Quran 4:23 strictly forbids having intercourse both with women and their daughters.
• They are not free orphan children in any way, for it's not illegal to marry a child regardless of her age as it's seen on Muhammad and Aisha's, Omar and Ali's daughter Ummu Gulsum's marriages etc.

After eliminating the other possibilities by the help of facts above, the only possibility left is: those are the man's maids' orphan children. Let's see how it is.

In Quran 24:33 it is seen that the maids were also forced into prostitution by their owners. Maids or slaves were considered property, owners had the right to use them in any way they wanted. Maids were used for prostitution, as treats to the owners' friends, for paying owners' debts etc.

As stated above, the child would be considered "free" if the father was the maid's owner. But if not, then the child would also be a slave or maid and used by the master.

At that time, there was no way of knowing who the father of the child was, if a woman - even if she was already pregnant from a certain man - had sexual intercourse with other men.^[2]

If a maid is offered to other men and used by her owner at the same time, or was already pregnant when she got bought/earned at war and used by her owner during her pregnancy, then that would make the child an orphan and require the master to decide the child's fate, whether to make the child free or making it a slave. If he makes the child a slave, then he would have all the rights to use her as a sex slave well.

Conclusion

The orphans mentioned in that ayah are those maids' children whose fathers are unknown, for the maids were used by both their owners and other men. And the real meaning of the ayah is:

• Polygamy in Islamic Law
• Misrepresentations of Islamic Scripture