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270chapter fiveprophet’, 26 indicating that no legislation is intended here, just informationthat is not binding legally (it is just suggested practice). 27Concluding Remarks on PolygynyWe have seen that permission of polygyny is conditional (expressedin the clause ‘if you fear…’). Allah gave it, as we pointed out, inorder to solve an acute social problem (surplus of women) in thewar-torn society of seventh-century Arabia. It is now up to us toeither use Allah’s permission if, and only if, the condition (fear) isfulfilled and the social circumstances are similar. If the condition andcircumstances are not given, we must not permit polygyny. This maylead to a situation in which one country will introduce a polygynylaw, while another country may abolish it because the country’spolitical and economic situation is entirely different. In both instances,however, legislators have to back up their decision by statistical data,representative surveys of existing marital relationships, and consultationwith the population. If legal decisions are taken on the basis ofsound empirical evidence, and a country like Syria allows polygamywhile Saudi Arabia prohibits it, we will have to accept that the twolegislative decisions, even if contradictory, are both sound. Shouldthe social circumstances in these countries change again, polygynylegislation will have to be reconsidered; therefore neither the decision26Other translators render al-nis§" not as YA by the old formal, legal term ‘consort’but straightforwardly as ‘wife’; AH, AB, AA: ‘Wives of the Prophet’; MF, AhA:‘O wives of the Prophet’; MP: ‘O you wives of the Prophet’. The SÊra and \adÊthscholars disagree about the exact number of his wives, some count nine as the minimum,others twelve as the maximum. The \anafÊ school lists eleven wives: 1)KhadÊja bint Khuwaylid, 2) Sawda bint Zam"a, 3) #$"isha bint Abå Bakr, 4) \afßabint #Umar, 5) Zaynab bint Khuzayma, 6) Umm Salima bint Abå Umayya, 7)Zaynab bint JaÈsh, 8) Juwayriyya bint \§rith, 9) Umm \abÊba bint Abå Sufy§n, 10)‘afiyya bint \uyaÊ, and 11) Maymåna bint al-\§rith. M§riya al-Qibãiyya (12) was aslave woman gifted to the Prophet by the king of Egypt. According to the \anafÊposition she remained a slave (and cannot be counted as a wife), while others arguedthat the Prophet freed her and formally married her afterwards.27MS proposes here a purely historical approach to the Prophet’s personal andmarital practices, which is, inevitably, turning the traditional fiqh position on itshead. The legal scholars have generally maintained that there were only very fewspecific rulings that only applied to the Prophet, one of which is that he was allowedto perform ßawm al-wiߧl (a continuous fast that ignores the normal break after sunsetduring Ramadan), and another was the permission to marry more than four wives ata time (see above).