SURAH AN-NISA (WOMEN): 3

TRANSLATION:

[4:3]
If you fear that you will not do justice to the orphans, then, marry the women you like{3}, in twos, in threes and in fours{4}. But, if you fear that you will not maintain equity, then (keep to) one woman, or bondwomen you own. It will be closer to abstaining from injustice.

INTERPRETATION:

{3} In a Hadith narrated in al-Bukhari, Hazrat Aisha RAA has explained that the background of this Hadith is that in those days sometimes a girl who had lost her parents would end up in guardianship of a male cousin. If she was beautiful and her parents had left a lot of money, then he would want to marry her when she attained adulthood to retain control her of her financial assets, but on Nikah (Islamic marriage) he would not give her as much Meher (money required to be given by groom to bride upon Nikah) as he would to another girl of similar status if she wasn’t in that situation. On the other hand, if the girl wasn’t beautiful, then he would still marry her to get control of her assets, but not only kept her Meher low, but also did not treat her as a beloved wife. This verse of the Holy Quran has ordered such people that if they felt that they would not be able to treat such orphan girls with justice and fairness, then they should not marry such girls and should marry another woman.

{4} In the days of Jahiliyah (ignorance) there was no prescribed number about how many women a man could marry. Sometimes men had ten or twenty women in their Nikah at the same time. This verse set a limit that a man could be married to a maximum of four wives at the same time, and only upon the condition that he could treat them all equally and fairly. If there was any risk that he would not be able to maintain balance and justice between his wives, then he was ordered to limit himself to only one wife. Under such circumstances, men were forbidden to do more than one Nikah.