"Give orphans their property, do not replace their good things with bad, and do not consume their property with your own-a serious crime. If you fear that you will not deal fairly with orphan girls, you may marry whichever women seem good to you, two three, or four. If you fear that you cannot be equitable to them, then marry only one, or your slave, that is more likely to make you avoid bias. Give women their dowry as a gift upon marriage, though if they are happy to give up some of it for you, you may enjoy it with clear conscience."
I am wondering if by this passage, the Qur'an is telling Muslims to marry orphans before they marry someone with a family. Or was the Qur'an simply talking of orphans before moving onto the dealing of marriage. I read this passage over and over again and cannot figure out as to why the Muslim men are supposed to marry orphans first.
Then, my next question is, it says that a man is allowed to marry more than one wife as long as he is equitable to all. Later in the passage, it says that it is impossible for a man to be equitable to all wives. So why would they be allowed to marry more than one woman in the first place. Just out of curiosity, I am wondering what percentage of men actually do marry more than one woman. In the United States, it is illegal to have more than one wife at a time. Does this have any effect on a Muslim's belief about marriage and do they object to America's law?
Other interesting points I found, was that it says divorce can happen twice, a widow must wait four months and ten nights before marrying etc. Do these numbers have any significance toward something Muhammad did with his wives in the past or are these numbers just an amount that the Muslims think is fair?
8 comments:
Refering to the passage when it brings up men marrying many women, I remember in class Professor Lucas talking about how if a man were to marry more than one woman, he had to treat them equal. For instance, if you were to have a large mansion, you had to have a mansion for all of your wives, not a mansion for one and small living quarters for the other. I think when they talk about how it is impossible to be equitable to all one's wives, they are talking about love. You cannot love more than one woman unconditionally, it just doesn't work. Does anyone disagree with me?
when i read this i literally think of orphans in an orphanage and they should go pick one they want to marry...i don't know if thats really whats being said. Although they are aloud to marry more than one woman i like the fact that it states they need to treat them equally and provide them all with the same fortunes. That way one woman won't feel left out because the others are getting more attention, it kind of puts a more positive effect on an interesting custom.
You have raised some very good points about this passage. I too an curious about many of these questions. Although this is most likely not correct, when i first read this passage i got the image in my head of orphans at a orphanage, and a man that being able to take his pick. This seems degrading to women, however i though Islam wasnt a religion that degrades women?
Regarding the passage about having many wives, I also am confused about the concept of this within the Islam religion. It kind of contradicts itself because in one part it says that you can have more than one wife. Yet, on the other hand like we have learned during lecture it is not only expensive to support more than one women but also is impossible said in the passages to fairly treat each women with an equal amount. I understand that polygyny is looked down upon but then I do not understand why it is even mentioned?
I really don't understand the part about marrying orphans either. I guess it might be to give them a sense of family that they never had. I'm not really sure though. I think that it is interesting how the Qur'an says that you must treat each of them equal. But then later on it contradicts itself when it says that it is impossible to do this. I guess it is just saying to try as hard as you can to treat each of the wives equally and it is good enough.
I am not sure the passage said that it was impossible for men to treat all of their wives equally- I think it just said that if you cannot treat every wife equally, do not have more than one wife. Also, I'm not sure the passage is explicitly saying marry an orphan first. It may have been written this way in order to establish that orphans are important as well. I mean it also talks about slaves, but I think the point of the passage is to discuss exactly what is to be done when obtaining a family, and that it is ok to marry whoever you prefer, whether it be an orphan, slave, or a woman with a family. I, however, find it very interesting, that there really seems to be no preference between who gets married, as long as the rules of marriage are complied with.
Yes, I also found that quite odd that you can have more than one wife at a time mainly because its illegal here, and I think when you commit to a person you commit to them and only them, but thats just me. I really do not understand the orphan part either. I sort of like the fact that there a many rules to marriage because it seems as if someone else is controlling your marriage and not you when there are so many rules. However, with no rules it seems sort of vague.
I think it is impossible to give full unconditional love to every single girl you may have at the same time. I do not think it is impossible to spread your time equally among them and treat them with equal things. This just blew me away when I found out muslims could have more than one wife. I certainly do not believe it, but I do think it is a good law that you have to treat them equally if you are going to have more than one wife...it is only fair.
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