Page 143 - Seekers Guide Book

The Seeker’s Guide
According to a hadith:

As you (society) are, so would your rulers
be. (Shuab al-Iman, hadith no. 7006)

These are the premises of democracy. Democracy is
government of the people, for the people and by the
people. Unlike dictatorship or monarchy, in a democracy
it is the society which dictates the events.

65 Can one practice polygamy
’
in today s age?

onogamy is the rule in Islam and polygamy only an
Mexception. In terms of birth rate, the number of men
and women in a given society is approximately equal. But
often, for a variety of reasons, especially during war, the
number of men in society decreases, leaving an excess of
women. Now the question arises as to what the solution
to this problem should be. In view of the inevitability
of this imbalance, how is a healthy relationship between
the two to be established? The choice for us, therefore,
is not between monogamy and polygamy, but rather,
between lawful polygamy or illicit polygamy. Secondly,
Islam permits polygamy on the precondition that a man
be able to justly treat all the women he marries.

142