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women and islamic law 2672. Qualitative limits:The qualitative limits are defined by the virginal status of thewoman. If she is still a virgin she will be treated differently from awoman who has lost her virginity. And if she has lost her virginity,one will have to qualify whether she is a divorced woman or awidow. This qualitative assessment is needed to link the conditionalclause ‘If you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with theorphans…’ to the response ‘[then] marry women of your choice,two or three or four…’. If we include these qualitative criteria inour analysis of polygyny, we come to the following conclusion: 1)with regards to the first wife, no specification is given: she mightbe a virgin, a divorcée or a widow; 2) the marriage to co-wives two,three and four is, however, qualified by a reference to ‘justice toorphans’, from which we infer that co-wives two to four must bewidowed mothers of orphans, women who have lost their virginity.In this case, the quantitative limits are still between one and four,while the qualitative criteria restrict polygynous relationships tomarriages of widows with small children. The marriage contractmust include the adoption and financial support of the orphanedchildren by a man who is already married to a first wife.The chart below shows that legislators are encouraged to issue polygynylaws in the light of the social and cultural conditions of thetime. If in times of war we face, for example, a serious shortage ofmen and a sudden increase of fatherless children, legislators mayconsider changing laws that prescribe monogamous relationships andintroduce laws that allow polygyny of up to four widows. This mayinclude permission to marry more than two widow-wives who haveno children at all. Absolutely forbidden are marriages to widows ifthe potential husband is not willing to adopt the orphans whom thewidow wanted to bring into the new marriage.can be guaranteed among all wives. The four schools only differ in explaining whatexactly constitutes the required equal treatment of all wives, and it is correct to saythat Islamic fiqh does not discuss the virginal, family, or economic status of the futurewives, i.e., the fuqah§" do not suggest what MS calls a qualitative examination of thewife in spe, but only an assessment of the situation of the existing, current wife of thepolygynous husband or of the situation after he has already married a new wife (seeal-JazÊrÊ, al-Fiqh #al§’l-madh§hib al-arba#a, vol. 4, 85; 115–20).