#249: Further Answers on the One who considers Marriage to Over Four Wives Halaal

QUESTION

“Assalamualiakum warahtullah, please more high lights, if the man that marry 86 wives later accept the truth is he going to divorce the other wives…And the children are they all going to inherit him when he is no more? Assalamualiakum warahtullah”

Answer

Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh

Alhamdulillāh

We have answered that the Ulamā are at a consensus that it is not permissible for a man to have more than four wives at the same time.

We also mentioned that whoeoever knowingly goes against this restriction commits Zina by so doing.

We also differentiated between the one who does it knowing the ruling of Allāh on it and the one who does it either with ignorance or with a false interpretation of the text by an Imām in whom he believes.

As for the first, his act is plainly Zinå and if he makes repentance and comes back to the truth, he must let go of the women above four and his children from them cannot inherit him. But they can inherit their mothers.

This is an agreement among the Ulamā.

As for the second, if he realises the truth and returns back to it, he must divorce the women above four wives but his children from them can inherit from him.

Shaykhu Al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah – rahimahullāh – said:

“For indeed the Muslims have formed a consensus that for every Nikāh in which the spouse beleives that the Nikāh is permissible, if the spouse consummates such a relationship, then the child from that intimacy is attributed to him and they can both inherit from each other. This is a point of consensus among the Muslims. Though the Marriage between them is void at the same time. This is by the consensus of the Muslims”

This is because both spouses believe they were in a legitimate marriage

It is based on this that when a Kafir couple becomes Muslim, their children are still attributed to them and they can inherit one another.

And Allāh knows best

Bārakallāhu fīkum