Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
8. Polygamy and Islam
~ 180 ~
This verse was revealed after the Battle of Uhud
(Shawwal 3
A.H.
) in which seventy Muslims were
martyred. Suddenly, seventy homes in Medina
were bereft of all male members, and the question
arose as to how all these widows and orphans were
to be cared for. This was an acute social problem. It
was solved by the revelation of this verse asking the
people who could afford it to take care of the
orphans, by marrying the widows and keeping their
orphaned children under their guardianship.
150. Qur’an, 4:3.
The background and wording of this verse appear
to express a commandment which should be only
temporary in effect. That is to say that it applied
only to a particular state of emergency when, due to
loss of men in battle, the number of women
exceeded the number of available men. But the
Qur’an, despite its having been revealed at a
particular time and place, is universal in its
application. One of the great characteristics of the
Qur’an is that it describes eternal realities, with
reference to temporal issues, this commandment
being typical of this special quality of the Qur’an.
