- The Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC) has commended the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi over his plan to
propose a bill that will ban poor men from marrying many wives
- The group said the proposal is a good development and conforms to the pronouncement of the Qu’ran
The
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has commended the Emir of Kano Muhammadu
Sanusi over his plan to propose a bill that will ban poor men from
marrying many wives.
The group said the proposal is a good development and conforms to the pronouncement of the Qu’ran.
Over
the weekend, the Emir of Kano announced that he had concluded plans to
propose a bill that will prohibit poor men from marry many wives and
having children whom they cannot cater for.
Sanusi said he had been able to establish a connection between polygamy, poverty and terrorism.
The
former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said most men in the
North, marry many wives, bear many children who end up on the street as
thugs.
He also promised that the bill
will be proposed in memory of late Ambassador Isa Wali, a former
Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana.
In support of the Emir’s announcement, MURIC said the group is behind Sanusi on the proposed bill.
The
director of the Islamic group Ishaq Akintola in a statement said the
Emir’s pronouncement is bold, visionary and revolutionary.
Akintola said: “Although
Islam allows a man to marry up to four wives, this permission is meant
to provide security for widows and other unmarried women. It is an open
secret that women outnumber men in all parts of the world. Islam
therefore permits men to marry more than one wife in other to provide
shelter and welfare for those women who would have been left single.”
He said the Qu’ran also enjoins
those who do not have the capacity to maintain even a single wife to
abstain from marriage until they can become economically strong enough.
“The
verse says, “Let those who do not have the means for marriage keep
themselves chaste until Allah gives them means out of his Grace” (Qur’an
24:33).
Akintola said while the abov
verse takes care of Islamic bachelors, another verse in the holy book,
caters for both married men and the single ones.
He
said the verse allows a man who already has one wife to take a second
woman, a third or even a fourth but with the proviso that such a man
must have sufficient wherewithal to care for them all.
“The
verse says inter alia, “…Marry two, three or four women of your choice.
But if you fear that you will not be able to deal justly with them,
marry only one…” (Qur’an 4:3). It is thus clear that, ceteris paribus,
Islam actually encourages monogamy and a second wife (or third and
fourth) can only come in where there is surplus provision.
“What
the Kano state government is trying to do is to give interpretation to
the phrase ‘to deal justly’ with two, three or four women.
This
becomes necessary in view of the fact that many Muslims abuse this
window by marrying more than one wife when in reality they cannot even
maintain one wife comfortably. The result is the production of children
who end up as social miscreants.
“MURIC
commends the vision and courage of the Emir of Kano as well as the
forthrightness of Kano state government for evolving this great idea.
We
charge other states which have Muslim majority population to emulate
this policy. It is capable of reducing poverty, raising the standard of
living and increasing the number of literate citizens,” Akintola said.
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