Zakir Naik on Polygamy

The greatest ‘women rights’ activist of our times, Zakir Naik proudly declares that Quran is the only scripture on earth to recommend ‘marry only one.’ And then he declares polygamy as a sure shot way to stop women-exploitation! We will analyze each of his claims one by one now.

Claim 1: Quran says marry only one

Islam is the only religion and Quran is the only religious scripture on the face of the earth which says “marry only one” [Quran 4:3].

If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly [with them], then only one… [Zakir Naik takes pause here though the verse continues further, please wait for 8th comment to know why.]

Analysis :

• “Marry women of your choice.” Hmm. Haven’t seen a single verse till now which commands a woman to “marry the man of your choice.” Enjoy the gender equality in Zakir’s Islam!
• According to Zakir Naik, Quran is the only book to prescribe- “marry only one.” So what is the conclusion? Is it that Allah wants strict monogamy to be practiced, but Muhammad himself set the wrong example by marrying 9/11/13+ women as per books prescribed by Zakir Naik?
• Use of wife in plural every time (wives) in Quran while dealing with the matters of husband-wife relationship/women/duties of man and woman, haram-halal description, etc. exposes the lies of Zakir’s “marry only one” philosophy blatantly!
• Extracting “marry only one” from the above verse is as foolish as implying “do not slay idolaters” from the below verse
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem [of war]; but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them… [Quran 9:5]
• This verse starts with “Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four” and then it says “if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly, then only one.” “Marry only one” of Quran is actually a suggestion to those men who are unable to handle multiple wives. So instead of promoting “marry only one” as a healthy practice among masses, Quran seems to link it with one’s impotency and making a monogamous man believe that he is unable to do justice! Thus this verse actually provokes one to be polygamous which will be the proof of him being just!

Some scholars like Dr. Ghali state that ‘justice’ means being able to manage the larger dependents. By this logic, if you are wealthy enough, you can marry as many as you want and produce as many offsprings you desire. He also suggests that the verse does not mean ‘marry two, three or four’ but ‘in twos, threes, and fours,’ implying that at one time, don’t marry more than four!

Here is a Sahih Hadith which explodes the Taqiyya (lie) of Zakir Bhai MBBS of “marry only one.”

Sahih Bukhari 7.62.7 Narrated Sa`id bin Jubair: Ibn `Abbas asked me, “Are you married?” I replied, “No.” He said, “Marry, for the best person of this (Muslim) nation (i.e., Muhammad) of all other Muslims, had the largest number of wives.” According to Dr. Ghulam Jelani Barq, in his book Dual Islam, the Hadith is like this- “The best man amongst my followers is the one who has the greatest number of wives.”

So whatever be the case with this Hadith, one thing is crystal clear that “having the largest number of wives” has been linked with one’s status to be best/superior. Moreover, the best Muslim is the one who follows Sunnah (copycat of Muhammad in simple words) of Muhammad. Thus a monogamous male has one more reason to feel inferior to polygamous males that he is not following Sunnah of the prophet.

• Note that the verse [4:3] (refer beginning of section Claim 1) starts with a mention of orphans. How is unjust dealing with orphans related to marrying women of one’s choice in the verse?
• If someone can’t deal justly with orphan girls, how can he deal justly with other women?
• This verse [4:3] is contradicted by [4:129] which says- Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire… In fact, in the presence of [4:129], [4:3] is automatically out of the question.
• If [4:3] and [4:129] have to be true at the same time, the only way out is strict monogamy. If A can be practiced only when B is fulfilled and B is impossible to fulfill, it means A should/cannot be practiced. Please replace A by “polygamy” and B by “being fair and just” in A-B analogy and then draw conclusion which is obvious:
That polygamy can’t be practiced without being unjust and thus without violating Quran [4:129].
“or [a captive] that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.” [this is the remaining part of [4:3] which Zakir chose not to quote deliberately]

Right-hand possesses means slave-girls with whom you have full rights to have sex without restriction of numbers and consent.

So Zakir’s holy book is clear! If you want to have more than one woman, but can’t marry twice or thrice or even once because you can’t do justice, then no problem. Have innumerable captive women in your house and rape them whenever you wish. And don’t need to bother about being just to them because they, being slaves, don’t deserve to be treated justly! So we see Islamic method of preventing injustice to a woman is hidden in forcing many other women to be raped!

Now many Muslim scholars claim that sex-slavery does not amount to rape. As per them, this is a way to entertain the slave-girls!

Claim 2: Vedas don’t say marry only one

Zakir Naik claims that except Quran no other text supports monogamy. While we have proved in the previous section that monogamy of Quran is only an exception for the less potent, and hence, greatest insult to women rights; we shall showcase how Vedas very clearly recommend only monogamy as the way for the sensible ones.

Analysis of Vedas on polygamy and monogamy:

All the Mantras related to the husband-wife relationship in entire Vedas appear in “Dwivachan”- dual numbers and this alone establishes that monogamy is omnipresent in entire Vedas. Please note that Sanskrit has a dual number apart from singular and plural which is exclusively used for TWO persons, not for more than two or less than two. This number TWO wipes out any possibility of polygamy/polyandry completely in Vedas.

• In Atharva Veda 7.35.4 both husband and wife state that, “You establish me in your heart so that our minds become one and same.”
• In Atharva Veda 7.38.4, wife says that “You should only be mine. You should not even discuss other women.”
• Rig Veda 10.101.11 states that a man with two wives is pressed from both sides and weeps like a horse that neighs when pressed from both sides by spokes while driving a chariot.
• Rig Veda 10.101.11 state that two wives make life aimless.
• Atharva Veda 3.18.2 prays that may a woman never face the threat of another co-wife.

Claim 3: Dashrath and Shri Krishna had many wives

In Ramayan, Dashrath had three wives, Shri Krishna as per Mahabharat had 16108 wives, Bollywood star Dharmendra has two wives then why can’t we Muslims have four?

Analysis :

• Nice try Zakir! But why only Dashrath? Try Ravan next time which will help you claim that in Ramayan when Ravan could abduct Mata Sita, why can’t We Muslims abduct women of infidels?
• Don’t you understand the difference between a book of knowledge and a book of history? Ramayan and Mahabharat are historical texts, and Vedas are texts of knowledge. So Ramayan and Mahabharat stories are to be judged based on Vedic morality and then accepted or rejected accordingly.
• Have you forgotten your own idiom- “don’t judge a car by its driver”? Why judging Hinduism on the basis of Dashrath or Shri Krishna or Dharmendra when you accept that Vedas are the foremost authority in Hinduism? What if we start judging Islam from the deeds of Muslims like Aisha or Ayatollah Khomeini or Katrina Kaif or Zeenat Aman instead of Quran and Ahadith?
• Dashrath is no role model or prophet for us in whose acts we have to believe blindly as is the case with you who has to believe divinity in Muhammad.
We very clearly assert that whosoever married more than once was against Vedas in this aspect of life. It does not matter whom you name. But will Zakir Naik be bold enough to assert that if a Prophet married more than once, or a scripture suggests polygamy, then they are wrong?
• I liked your desperate innocence hidden in your words “why can’t we Muslims have four”! But I pray to Allah not to give such innocence to Hindus, who could then be ready to attack Muslim nations with the logic that when Muslims could invade our land, kill our ancestors, convert them forcefully, rape women, loot temples, desecrate our idols, why can’t we attack them?
• We have the courage to reject the deeds/stories written in any of the book no matter whosoever is claimed to have done/written that, do you have same courage? After knowing that according to Sahih Hadith and Quran cited by you, the prophet married a 6-year-old baby, consumated marriage with 9-year old, married more than ten times, kept sex slaves which in the civilized world is equivalent to rape, do you reject the SAHIH Hadith and Verses of Quran related to sex slavery, pedophilia, and rape? Scholars like Dr Ghulam Jilani rejected and faced tremendous threats to life.

Claim 4: Jewish scriptures and Bible permit polygamy

Jewish scriptures and Christian Bible give permission to marry as many times as you wish. Abraham had three wives; Solomon had 700 wives.

Analysis :

• The scriptures of Jews and Christians which Zakir Naik is complaining about not putting a restriction on a number of wives were sent by SAME ALLAH who sent Quran! Was it wrong earlier or now?
• If Zakir argues that Allah modifies his word because of evolution of human mind, and thus “no restriction” in previous books was according to the people of that time and “restriction” in Quran is correct for now, then why is he trying to establish supremacy of one text on the other which are not comparable at all? Also, why does not Allah send a new revelation when Quranic lifestyle is grossly outdated today and we live in a digital world?
• Solomon, who had 700 wives, was a messenger of Allah as per Quran! So how giving an example of Solomon’s 700 marriages can help Zakir Naik prove Islam better than Judaism or Christianity when Solomon was the prophet of Islam according to Zakir Naik? [Please note that as per Zakir Naik, Islam came to the world at the inception of humans with Adam, and all the messengers of Allah were prophets of Islam!]

Claim 5: Hindu law and not Hinduism is monogamy

According to Hindu scriptures you can marry as many times you wish, it is Indian government which passed the special law- Hindu special marriage act according to which Hindu should marry only one.

Analysis :

Please see section 2 of the chapter to know what Vedas have to say about polygamy.

• Can we ask how could Indian government pass the special law for monogamy for Hindus so easily if Hindus or Hindu scriptures were the fans of polygamy?
• Can we ask how could not Indian government pass the special law for monogamy for Muslims till date if Muslims or Muslim scriptures are the only supporters of the concept of “marry only one” on the face of the earth?
• Who proposed this law of strict monogamy for Hindus in India? Hindus themselves! It only means that Hindus did/do not take the stories of polygamy in their history books seriously, and they were/are firm believers of the Vedic teaching of monogamy by heart. All the great legends of Hinduism, whom many Hindus consider to be their role models, were purely monogamous or Brahmachari- Vishnu, Shankar, Ram, Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughan, Hanuman, and Krishna.
• At the same time, no Muslim has ever proposed monogamy law for Muslims in spite of the fact that Muslims are the only believers of “marry only one” on the face of the earth as per Zakir! Strange!

Claim 6: There are more females in the world than males

Female children are more than the male children. There are more females in the world than males. Thus polygamy is the only solution.

Analysis :

• Wrong! No country in the world has more female children than male children up to the age of 15 years! For most of the countries, male to female ratio is greater than one along with very few where this ratio is equal to 1.

[Reference: Central Intelligence Agency]

• Zakir is again wrong on the population of females more than that of males in the world. Here are the actual figures for world sex ratio according to which there are more males in the world than females.

[Reference: Central Intelligence Agency]
Sex ratio at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
Total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2011 est.)

This data shows that Zakir Naik is misleading his semi-literate followers by giving them fake numbers which they can’t cross check or even analyze in the absence of basic knowledge of mathematics and statistics. [Our foremost priority towards helping Muslim Ummah is to convince Mullahs governing Madarsa chains throughout India, to include subjects like mathematics and statistics in Madarsa curriculum that will help Madrasa graduates discover more dimensions to explore, which, till now, has been restricted to parroting Arabic literature 24×7 devoid of any maths or analytical thinking therein.]
Now when it is proven that males are actually more than the females worldwide, will Zakir Bhai MBBS recommend polyandry by sticking to the same logic of numbers?

Interestingly, Zakir’s claim of more women than men only befits the age group of 65 years and above, in which no one marries! Perhaps Zakir seems to be providing a solution to the people who don’t have any problem in the first place! We advise Zakir to think about other issues related to Grandmas in their seventies such as nourishment and old-age care instead of marriage!

Claim 7: In West, there are more females than males

In USA, UK, Germany, there are 7.8, 4, 5 million more females than males respectively. So the only option for these extra women, who are left unmatched after the “market is saturated”, is to marry to already married males or become “public property”.

Analysis :

Mullah Zakir at his best! He is exposed again in front of the world. So a woman is basically a ‘property’, when married it is called- Personal property and when can’t be married it is called- Public property! Later is better called as a slave or right-hand possession in the terminologies of Zakir’s holy book that can be raped, sold, purchased, and beaten anytime when the master wills! Exactly what ISIS does.

Being a non-practicing medical undergraduate, Zakir is not aware of statistical techniques required to infer the useful information from data like the census. He is unaware of the fact that demographic data is analyzed using ratios and not absolute numbers. That is why we talk of sex ratio.

Errors of just 5 to 10% in the census (which is quite common) can roughly lead to 15 million more males than females or vice versa for the United States alone with a total population of around 30 Crore! Now imagine how wise of Zakir to come up with the idiotic justification of polygamy because his census confirms 7 million more females than males in the US! Only God knows how much error Zakir’s data has whose source is best known to him alone!

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Zakir’s data has been directly sent down by all-knowing God from the seventh heaven! Now we have, according to Zakir Naik, 7 million more females than males who are on the verge of becoming public property! Imagine, just 15% males of America start taking Quran [4:3] seriously and think that they are capable enough to give justice to multiple wives! Keeping in mind Allah’s words of [4:3]- “Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four”, 5% of American males marry twice, 5% marry thrice and remaining 5% marry four times. [rest 85% don’t consider themselves capable of dealing with multiple wives justly and hence are happy to get one wife]. Let us assume the US to have a 30 Crore population, of which 14.5 Crore is male and remaining 15.5 Crore is female (I have eased Zakir by increasing surplus female population of US from 7 million to 10 million)!

Now see, 15% of US males (2.175 Crore) have engaged with 42% of US females (6.525 Crore)! So rest 12.325 Crore males of US are left with 8.975 Crore females leading to 3.35 Million US males turning Gigolos or gays in the absence of female counterparts!
Perhaps, in that case, God will be forced to send a new revelation on Zakir Naik which will allow polyandry to deal with the situation!

When the result of taking the verse [4:3] seriously only by 15% of US males can lead to such disaster, how can such teaching be for whole humanity?

As always, in this claim too, Zakir has lied again by giving wrong figures from the unknown census. Here we give the sex ratios corresponding to the age group 15-64 Years which includes all males and females of marriageable state for the four countries Zakir mentioned

In USA: 1 male(s)/female
In UK: 1.03 male(s)/female
In Germany: 1.04 male(s)/female
[Reference: Central Intelligence Agency]

Thus, the data used by Zakir Naik was simply copied from Ahmad Deedat’s speech and is completely wrong. If these Mullahs had taken facts, logic, and evidence seriously, how could have Osama ruined the world sitting in Islamabad!

What solution does Zakir Naik have for the actual scenario of the world in which we have 70 Million surplus males than females falling in 15-65 marriageable age-group?

Finally, if we assume Zakir’s data is correct then his logic says that 7 Million women in the US alone will become ‘public property’. Has he heard of any woman becoming public property because she could not find a groom till now? If no, why? Is your data wrong or logic or both?

Claim 8: India has more males because of female feticide

India has more males because of female feticide and infanticide, and if this evil practice stops, India too will have more number of females than males.

Analysis :

Agreed with the fact that female feticide is to be stopped at any cost but we don’t agree with Zakir’s motivation behind it. He dreams of having more females so that he can encourage people to practice polygamy as per Quran! But we believe that a female has an equal right to exist as her male counterpart and should come to the earth to live dignified and prosperous life.

By the way, India is the land of Kafirs (Dar ul-Harb), so it may not match Islamic standard census where women outnumber men hugely! But I wonder what happens in Islamic countries actually! Here are the sex ratios for prominent Islamic countries for age group 15-64 years

Afghanistan: 1.05 male(s)/female
Qatar: 2.44 male(s)/female
Saudi Arab: 1.27 male(s)/female
Bangladesh: 0.89 male(s)/female
Pakistan: 1.09 male(s)/female
Iran: 1.02 male(s)/female
Iraq: 1.03 male(s)/female
Indonesia: 1.01 male(s)/female
Kuwait: 1.79 male(s)/female

Except Bangladesh, every prominent Islamic country has millions of males who will not find partners as per Zakir’s logic! And Bangladesh has been demanding to become secular instead of Islamic! That is why Dhaka attacks happened.

How will Quran solve this problem which exists even in the chosen land of Allah- Arab?

Claim 9: More males die than females in war

More males die in accidents, war, and due to consuming alcohol than females. Thus females are more and males are less.

Analysis :

“More females than males” argument is factually wrong as has been proved above.
Now look at another trick of Zakir Bhai MBBS! He blames the unfortunate practices like female feticide for the lower number of females in India and he hopes that this practice stops so that women outnumber men and the divine practice of polygamy starts in India too. But at the same time, he argues that since many males die due to war, alcohol and accidents, polygamy should be allowed! Now this is heads I win tails you lose! He blames one unfortunate practice as unnatural and causing imbalance whereas makes other unfortunate occurring like war, accidents, and alcohol as the foundation for practicing polygamy! What if I say that it is because wars, alcohol, and accidents that males are less. And if these don’t occur through prosperity and peace, men will be more and thus polygamy should not be allowed! If he prays Allah against female feticide, why does not he do same for war, alcohol and accident that these also should never happen? Or does he believe that it is his religious duty to continue engaging India in wars and terror-attacks by nurturing Jihadis?

Imagine rule of Zakir’s Islam has been established as per his wish in the whole world. Now there are no engine vehicles (all advancements of science will doom as the Kafir inventors of technologies will remain no more), only camels and donkeys for transportation, so no accidents! Islamic rule- no war because a Muslim cannot fight another Muslim as per Quran, and no alcohol because Islam prohibits it. So no accident, no war, no alcohol, so surplus males stop dying and thus males will be more than females. What will be done now? Or is it that alcohol, war, and accidents are necessary to keep women more than men always so that the divine practice of polygamy can continue in an unperturbed manner?

That’s great anyway! Wage war on non-believers (as mentioned in Quran 9:5 and 9:29), kill all men, take away women as slaves and then argue- since men are killed in wars, women should be distributed among other men so that they can find partners! This is Islamic solution to the problem- first, kill the men of other women and then like an angel seduce her with sword in hand – Hey! Marry me as I don’t want to see you become public property! And if you don’t, I will behead you for insulting Allah. This is exactly what ISIS is doing with Yezid women.

Claim 10: In Islam, polygamy protects the modesty of woman

In Islam, the second wife has equal rights as the first wife. Polygamy is to protect the modesty of woman not to degrade her.

Analysis :

With this, we agree completely! The second wife has exactly equal rights as the first wife. She will be treated as half intelligent just like the first wife. [Please refer Sahih Bukhari]. She will have all rights to read Quran and pray to Allah except for the days of her menses. During that time she will not be allowed to touch Quran. She will not be allowed to pray to Allah just like the first wife. She will remain wife of the husband just like the first wife until he calls Talaaq three times. She will have all rights to welcome the third wife just as the first wife welcomed her.

I want to add that third wife will also have same rights as first two. But alas! The fourth wife will not have equal rights. She will not get any opportunity to welcome the fifth wife because Islam only allows up to four wives! But wait! All is not lost! The fourth wife will have the opportunity to welcome innumerable concubines which her husband’s right hand possesses! So this way polygamy protects the modesty of a woman and upgrades her! It is just like the ISIS’ claims that raping a slave girl upgrades her and stops her from becoming public property!

This was our analysis of the glorious and divine practice of polygamy which Zakir’s God has approved only for those who can deal justly. Though one may ask if is it trait of noble or a perverted man who is not satisfied with his devoted wife and desires more women? But as we know, Allah knows the best. We end this with a Hadith
Sahih Bukhari 5.58.166: Narrated `Aisha: I did not feel jealous of any of the wives of the Prophet as much as I did of Khadija though I did not see her, but the Prophet used to mention her very often… When I sometimes said to him, “(You treat Khadija in such a way) as if there is no woman on earth except Khadija,” he would say, “Khadija was such−and−such, and from her, I had children.”

This Hadith is narrated by Aisha, beloved wife of Muhammad and mother of believers. Now imagine- the blessed wife of the best man ever born- Muhammad used to feel jealous of other wives because of unequal treatment. Just think, when even prophet could not deal justly with his multiple wives, how can you expect to do the same?