تعدد الزوجات وآثاره في المجتمع الماليزي

This study argues that the position of Islam towards polygamy has been profoundly misunderstood and often exploited to distort the image of Islam. Meanwhile, the adversaries of polygamy and Islam too, encourage permissiveness and moral laxness, and present them as a better alternative. The study depends on the inductive analytical method to compile data on the subject from both the Shari’ah and relevant temporal laws. It also conducts field study to understand the magnitude of polygamy, and the reactions to it among various sectors in the Malaysian society. The importance of this study lies in its elucidation of polygamy and its role in protecting the societies against the evils of family disintegration, several diseases and rape that are triggered by sexual permissiveness and the alarming accelerating rate of celibacy. The study demonstrate that polygamy had been practiced long before Islam, and by many nations that allowed men to marry as many women they wanted without any conditions or restrictions. With the advent of Islam, only physically and financially capable men were allowed to practice polygamy, and on a much-limited scale. The study admirably observe that the Malaysian personal laws sanction polygamy, but since each state has its own laws on the issues, it is advisable that they should be standardized in one law in order to avoid unjustified charges, such as redundancy against the injunctions of the Shari’ah. Polygamy is arguably a necessity for the Malaysian society, as it helps in resolving many problems related to marital affairs. Nonetheless, while reducing the impact of these problems, polygamy does not, however, address their root courses or settle them once and for all in the Malaysian setting.