4:19); Abraham had three wives; Jacob had two wives besides...

4:19); Abraham had three wives; Jacob had two wives besides concubines; Moses did not forbid it, instead he brought Laws to regulate it, as has been mentioned in the previous heading. Christians try to overcome these difficulties implying that the previous prophets had made a mistake in marrying more than one wife. But the insurmountable difficulty faces them in the case of Moses.

This is because Moses had brought a Law from God, and if it was God's intention to make marriage a `union between one man and one wife,' Why did 1le give Moses regulations about polygamy? The above-mentioned Dictionary of Bible tries to gloss over this difficulty by saying, "Moses, who was correcting abuses, not suddenly abolishing them, did not forbid polygamy, but discouraged it." It is a claim which cannot be justified, because Moses himself married two wives: one.

was Zipporah, daughter of Jethro (known in Islamic language as Shu'ayb), the other was a Cushite woman whom Moses married in the second year of the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness. (Num. 12:1) There is no mention anywhere in the scriptures or any other writing that Zipporah was not alive at that time. So far about Moses and the Prophets before him.

Now we come to the prophets who came after this supposed `discouraging.' We find that polygamy continued to be practised even after the time of Moses, as by Gideon, Elkanah, Saul, Rehoboam and countless others. For the details, see Judge. 8:30; I Sam. 1:2; II Sam. 12:8; 21:8. Prophet "David took him more euncubines and wives out of Jerusalem." (II Sam. 5:13).

Prophet Solomon "had seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines." (I Kings, 11:3) Now we come to the period after the ministry of Jesus Christ. S.V. Mir Ahmad Ali writes in his translation of the Holy Qur'an:- "It has often been asserted that Christianity interdicted polygamy, and made monogamy obligatory on all. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

"Ameer Ali, speaking of the general prevalence of polygamy among all nations, remarks:- 'And so it was understood by the leaders of Christendom at various times that there is no intrinsic immorality or sinfulness in plurality of wives. One of the greatest fathers of the Christian Church (St.