First, wife hitting: how can that be a way of discipline? It looks humiliating, and why would any husband who loves his wife humiliate her in that way?
Second, why can men have 4 wives? Can he be the same with all? Can a person love 4 other persons in the same time? What about the sexual diseases? Is it natural that in one night a husband sleeps with one woman and other night with a second woman, etc.? How can one woman, one human being, feel about it? Is polygamy humiliation for women?
Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Islam never allows a Muslim to humiliate his wife. Rather, there are numerous hadiths (Prophetic sayings) ordering the husband to best deal his wife showing that the best man is the one who honorably deals with his wife.
2- As for polygamy, it is not the norm or the base. Rather, it is permissible under certain situations and circumstances that necessitate it for solving some social problems.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Does Islam Allow Humiliating Women?
Islam does not allow man to humiliate his wife. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
“This world is an abode of a brief sojourn, and the best asset one could have here is the companionship of a righteous woman.” (Muslim)
“The best of you is the one who is the kindest to his family.” (Ibn Majah)
Prophet Muhammad is our perfect role model, and he never used his hands to strike anyone; neither a man or woman or anyone else, for that matter, as his own beloved wife Aishah told us.
So, there is no question of humiliating one’s wife by beating her as a religious norm in Islam.
Polygamy: Norm or Exception?
As for polygamy, you are again wrong in assuming it to be a norm. The norm in Islam is one wife. However, polygamy is permissible under certain conditions and circumstances. It is an exception.
For your information, polygamy was never banned in the Jewish or Christian scriptures. We know most of the great Biblical prophets practiced it.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.