Islamic Concept of Polygamy: An Analysis of Montgomery Watt and Robert Spencer’s views

Abstract

Islam is a natural religion, and the teachings of the Holy Quran and Prophet (PBUH) are in accordance with human nature and fulfill ample resources for the fulfillment of human economic and social needs However, Orientalists have distorted the facts and reasons with regard to polygamy. This article presents a research and critical review of the Orientalist William Montgomery watt and Robert Spencer objections to the concept of polygamy in Islam. They have unsuccessfully tried to challenge Islamic dignity and status in this issue. William Montgomery watt and Robert Spencer are included in the list of those Orientalists who have discussed this issue in their Quran commentaries. They consider that only Islam is the religion which permits its followers to have more than one wife and it was not practiced before. In this research written with a comparative and analytical approach, it is proved that according to Quran, sciences of Tafsir,Hadith literature, history and logic, the explicit concepts of both scholars about this issue is baseless and have been rejected with the arguments given by the majority of the scholars and Muslim thinkers.