Feb 13, 2010

Polygamy: Haram


I know this may come as a shock to all of you, but contrary to popular beliefs, polygamy is actually strictly prohibited in Islam.

The word polygamy comes from the Greek word 'poly', meaning multiple, and 'gamous' meaning marriage. So literally, it means "the custom of having more than one spouse at the same time."

The word polygamy is a common term for both polygyny (having more than one wife at the same time) and polyandry (having more than one husband at the same time).

So obviously, Islam does not allow its followers to be practicing polyandry. A woman can only be married to one husband at a time. More on the reasons later, iAllah.

The more accurate term for a man having more than one wife at the same time is polygyny; (poly = multiple, gune = woman). But even if you use this term, it's not right to say that Islam allows polygyny per se.

Islam only allows 'limited polygyny'.

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*I've written a post in my old blog on why Islam allows polygyny. Click here to know why.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

guess what, i tahu that women are not allowed to kawin ramai masa form 3... bodoh tak? before that, i thought women were allowed, it's just that they didn't want to. hehe.

Effy Saiful said...

iye? haha.. not bodoh, just a lil bit funny =p