al-Fawda al-Diniyya wa Taaddud al-Zawjat - ضمن "Athar al-Mualimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
al-Fawda al-Diniyya wa Taaddud al-Zawjat ("Religious Anarchy and Polygyny") is a concise theological and legal treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1311–1386 AH / 1894–1966 CE) addressing the permissibility and wisdom of polygyny in Islamic law and critiquing modern debates surrounding intellectual freedom and religious authority .
Background and Manuscript
The work was preserved as an unindexed autograph draft among al-Mu'allimi's papers in the library of the Haram of Mecca . The manuscript spans eight long-format pages with thirty-four lines per page, containing numerous authorial strikethroughs and corrections . It was subsequently edited and published as the thirty-fifth treatise in the collected works edition Athar al-Mu'allimi .
Content and Arguments
Al-Mu'allimi opens the treatise with a critique of Westernized figures who intervene in religious disciplines without mastering their foundational principles or legal causes . He argues that genuine freedom of thought requires deep expertise rather than superficial rejection of tradition, remarking that abandoning ancestral practice merely to imitate atheists represents a transition from one form of servitude to another .
Turning to the subject of polygyny, al-Mu'allimi asserts that its legitimacy is established by necessity in Islam, corresponds to natural human disposition (fitra), and serves tangible social interests (maslaha) . He refutes a modern argument that attempts to deduce an effective prohibition by contrasting verse 3 of Surah al-Nisa (which restricts marriage to one wife if injustice is feared) with verse 129:
وَلَنْ تَسْتَطِيعُوا أَنْ تَعْدِلُوا بَيْنَ النِّسَاءِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتُمْ
"You will never be able to maintain [total] justice between wives, even if you desire it."
Al-Mu'allimi clarifies that the unattainable justice mentioned in verse 129 refers to absolute emotional equality in the heart rather than external fairness in maintenance and spousal rights .
In a dedicated section titled Mafasid Ta'addud al-Zawjat ("The Alleged Harms of Polygyny"), al-Mu'allimi enumerates eight harms frequently cited by critics—including domestic friction, financial strain, and rivalry—and systematically analyzes each one, arguing that their potential negative impact is minor compared to the broader social benefits of the institution . He adds that when a man refrains from polygyny or lawful separation and consequently falls into illicit sexual relations (zina), the resulting societal and moral damage far exceeds any alleged detriment associated with plural marriage .
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