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260chapter fivePolygynyThe issue of polygyny 21 has perhaps been the most controversial topicsince reformers of the nineteenth century began to question the plausibilityof Islam’s traditional marriage law. It is certainly one of thekey issues that women in the Arab-Muslim world today face in theirstruggle for liberation and emancipation. If this issue is ever to beresolved once and for all, Muslim-Believers worldwide must cometo terms with the modern age and the problems that come with it.The reform we propose is to understand the verses of polygyny,contained in the umm al-kit§b, as Èudåd verses (pointing to upper andlower limits), which allows us to legislate in accordance with concretehistorical conditions in society and to appeal to the most noble anduniversal aspects of all human beings.The verse of polygyny, or should we say the verse about its abolition,can be found in Sårat al-Nis§", the fourth såra and hence rightat the beginning of the Book. It only consists of one verse, 4:3, andnowhere else in the entire text is polygyny mentioned again. Themistake of traditional exegetes has been to treat this verse consistentlydetached from its textual context ignoring the preceding verses whichdiscuss how to avoid injustice to orphans. As a result polygyny waslegislated for in isolation from the issue of marriages to widowedmothers of orphans and thus in isolation from its divine ratio legis.In order to rectify this mistake, we will give the reader the exactsequence of the first verses of Sårat al-Nis§". The såra begins withGod’s call to humankind to show reverence to the ‘Guardian-Lord’:O [humankind]! Reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created youfrom a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from themtwain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women. Reverence God,through whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) thewombs (that bore you); for God ever watches over you. ( Al-Nis§" 4:1)It continues in verse 2 with a call to humankind not to squander theproperty of orphans but to take good care of it:21The term polygyny is defined as the practice of having more than one femalepartner (either wife or sexual partner) at the same time. Since the Arabic termta#addud al-zaw§j has only been discussed as a concept that pertains to the marriage ofmore than one wife, the more general term polygamy (marriage of more than onemale or female partner) has not been used.