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

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.

#Father is dead

[[Purpose_of_the_Mahr|Mahr]] is by definition {{ quote || the amount of money to be paid by the groom to the bride, at the time of marriage }} 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.

"Women" in numbers beginning from two, going up to four. In fact, four is not a limit here, considering the language of the Qur'an, it's just a way of saying "as many as you need". Number 4 would have strictly been put in that way, if it was a limitation. Therefore, here it means "have as many women as you need to feed your desires". This definitely shows that the ayah is in no way related to paying mahr justly, for the mahr of many women will definitely cost more than that of an underage child with low judgmental and valuation skills. It is irrational for one that does not want to pay the child's mahr accordingly, to pay more mahr as an alternative. Approaching from the other side, knowing the uncontrollable [[Qur'an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Sexuality|sexual desires of early Muslims]], marrying 2, 3, 4 or more women (of any age) is always preferable than marrying to one, so an ayah ordering the obvious is unnecessary.

Only 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 {{ quote || if you fear that you will not be able to act justly between your wives (economically and socially), then content yourself with only one}}  

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

{{quote || If you fear you cannot act equitably towards orphans, than marry as many as women you need. If you can not (economically or psychologically) handle many women, then content yourself with only one. If you can not marry even one, than keep going on with the maid(s) you already have}}