Polygamy in Islam
Polygamy means a system of marriage in which one person has more than one spouse. It has two types. One is polygyny where a man marries more than one woman, and the other is polyandry, where a woman marries more than one man. In Islamic School of Thought, limited polygyny is permitted; whereas polyandry is completely prohibited.
The Qur’an is the only religious book, on the face of this earth, that contains the phrase ‘marry only one’. There is no other religious book that instructs men to have only one wife. In none of the other religious scriptures, whether it be the Vedas, the Ramayan, the Mahabharat, the Geeta, the Talmud or the Bible does one find a restriction on the number of wives.
Quran learning and understanding reveals that Qur’an only allows limited polygamy on some conditions. These conditions must be met if a person wants to marry more than one woman. Whereas before the Qur’an was revealed, there was no upper limit for polygyny and many men had scores of wives, some even hundreds. Islam put an upper limit of four wives.
Polygyny falls in the middle category of things that are permissible. It cannot be said that a Muslim who has two, three or four wives is a better Muslim as compared to a Muslim who has only one wife. Therefore polygyny is not a rule but an exception. Many people are under the misconception that it is compulsory for a Muslim man to have more than one wife.