Polygamy...

Yesterday an American friend of mine asked me bout polygamy, at first I was taken aback by the question coz never before was I confronted with such a frank and direct question regarding Islam. Ooooooohhh, momentarily I was speechless, and then I had to racked my brain for an answer?? It was a simple question,

"Is it true that polygamy is allowed in Islam?"

If I answered "true" without any elaboration, she wuld think Islam was a terrible religion, so i had to be wise! It made me question myself;

"Are we ready enough for this kind of question??"

Her thoughts bout Islam depends so much on my answer..

In that brief moment we had, I managed to tell her that Islam does allow polygamy but to a certain extent and with several restrictions, like a muslim man who engages in polygamy is required to deal justly with his wives, and that Islam discourage polygamy but allow it for everyone's benefit. I told her that Islam did not CREATE polygamy! Actually polygamy was practiced by other religions too since long time ago, what Islam did was to organize it.. There were, and still are, Muslims that misuse what is given to them, in fact there are Muslims who do prohibited things in Islam let alone misuse!! Of course, those that misuse polygamy or any other privilege given to them will be held accountable.

I told her that me and hubby come from a really huge family, and out of this huge number of family members and relatives, only one that i knew of with more than 1 wife. So I said, even though polygamy is allowed in Islam, very few practiced it, usually they were those who knew very little bout Islam.

Personally, as a Muslim, I think we shouldn't question polygamy... after all it is allowed in Islam.. if anything goes wrong, we shouldn't blame Islam but blame Muslim instead. Every prohibited thing in Islam links to one another. If we failed to follow one of them then everything would end up wrong... For instance, Islam prohibit men and woman from mingling with one another without limits, if everyone comply to this rule then how is it possible for polygamy to occur? Ther's no way! The only way for polygamy then is definitely through arranged marriage which is high unlikely to happen without the existing wives consent. Got my point?!