While the Quran authorizes up to four wives, nowhere does it authorize six. So, I can’t imagine what this Saudi—a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, no less—might have been thinking. I find it curious that the judge found ‘insufficient evidence of zina‘, adultery. Four legal wives; two illegal wives. Unless he was not having sex with two of them, how could this not be positive proof of adultery?
Perhaps that’s what the judge couldn’t prove…
JEDDAH: A court in Al-Masarha in Jizan region has sentenced a 56-year old Saudi employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) to 120 lashes for being married to six wives at the same time, 20 lashes per wife.
He has been ordered to memorize two chapters of the Holy Qur’an. The court also banned him from traveling abroad for five years and delivering sermons or leading prayers in mosques. The accused had claimed he did not know it was against Islamic law to have more than four wives at the same time. He told the judge that he had no education beyond elementary school.
He faced the possibility of being stoned to death, a sentence applied in Islam against married men and women for adultery. Under Sharia rules, a man may marry up to four wives. However, the judge in the case, Sheikh Salman bin Yahya Al-Wadaani, said there was insufficient evidence to apply the Had Al-Zina (the sentence for adultery), according to Al-Watan daily.
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February:17:2010 - 09:48
So a man who claims he does not know Islamic law is in charge of enforcing Islamic law.
Nice.
Naturally they did not find him guilty of zina. If he had only been a woman with more than one husband, I have a feeling the finding would have been different.
February:17:2010 - 10:14
Ironice considering he learned just enough about Islam to know he could have more than one wife…but apparently stopped reading after that….hmmm?
Using ignorance as an excuse is laugable…wondering if he accepted that from any of his “religious corrections” he enforced Islamic obedience on?
February:17:2010 - 10:57
I actually believe this employee from the Vice didn’t know Islam does not allow more than 4. Either that or he rationed that the non-Saudi women only accounted for 1/4 of a Muslim.
At any rate, so nice to hear about the ban on him concerning giving sermons at mosques and leading prayers.
February:17:2010 - 12:14
I’m assuming he has to give up two of the wives? Any compensation for them perhaps?
February:17:2010 - 14:12
You mean beside the Yemeni wives’ being deported? Likely not…
February:18:2010 - 01:26
When I first went to KSA I thought I’d see polygamy everywhere. You do see it, but what I find interesting is that it seems to be less common in the middle class and among the more educated.
If you ask me, you have to be a moron or a sultan to want more than one wife. Relationships are complicated enough between two people.
Oh and all that stuff about “treating them equally” — complete bollocks. Impossible. Men will always favor one of them for sex, one of them for cooking, one of them for advice, etc. This is la-la land stuff that should be left in the 7th century.
The most disturbing justification for this is “well, polygamy is a woman’s right because widows should be allowed to find shelter in a relationship with a married man because single men won’t find them attractive, blah blah blah.”
Wrong. If Saudis would stop institutionally discriminating against women (eg a single woman can rarely rent an apartment) then women wouldn’t be social victims that need the “right” to marry a married man in order to have access to food, shelter and money.
This is a self-perpetuating cycle: discriminate against women to such a degree that they MUST depend on men to survive, then use that to justify polygamy so that widows don’t starve in the street.
February:18:2010 - 08:41
Interestingly enough some Shiite sects allow up to nine wives. Their reasoning stems from their interpretation of Quran verse 4:3 “Marry women of your choice, Two and three and four” where they assume that the “and” is additive.
February:18:2010 - 09:03
That’s very interesting; I’d never come across that before. Do you happen to know which sects?
February:18:2010 - 10:59
I think I will found a new sect which will maintain that it should be read 234 (two hundred and thirty four) :$