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Can a husband marry another wife without getting the permission of the first wife?

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Can a husband marry another wife without getting the permission of the first wife? Can a husband marry another woman without telling his first wife and also knowing that although she is a very good muslimah, she is very possessive…

Answer

There are two aspects regarding a husband taking a second wife; a) Shari?ah, b) Practical.

According to the Shari?ah, a man may have four wives at once on condition he maintains equality among all his wives as stipulated in Shari?ah. This is clearly mentioned in the Qur’aan. It is not a Shar’ee pre-requisite for a husband to get the prior consent of his wife to take another wife. If he marries another woman without the prior consent of his wife, the second marriage will be valid. However, from a practical point of view, it is observed that when a man takes another wife and marries her secretly, that poses many problems, for example, when the first wife comes to know about her husband’s second marriage, she feels betrayed. That itself leads to many more problems.

In order to avoid such problems, we advise that the husband discuss with his wife his intention to remarry. It is obvious that he will have to use wisdom and diplomacy in discussing such a sensitive issue with her. He must also expect her to react negatively to his intention, especially, when women are generally possessive over their husbands.

The advantage of discussing with the wife is if she is the issue and cause of his intention to remarry, that will present her an opportunity to make adjustments with her husband and avoid him remarrying. Furthermore, if the husband remarried after having discussed the matter with his wife, she will not feel the pain as much as learning about the husband’s second marriage without knowing his intention. In brief, according to the Shari?ah, the husband does not require the consent of the wife to remarry but the matter must be approached in a practical way with wisdom and diplomacy.

and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai

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This answer was collected from Askimam.org, which is operated under the supervision of Mufti Ebrahim Desai from South Africa.

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