Polygyny (ta'addud al-zawjat)

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy takes up polygyny through the story of a man who married two wives without knowing what burdens a husband, and describes the hardship between co-wives. ¹ This topic is contested, and the Sheikh's view is set out in the final section.

The Sheikh tells of a man who married two wives without knowing what burdens a husband, and then complained of the strain between them (needs_source). ¹ He recounts that a friend found him sad and said his wife was tired; he then described himself as a lamb between two rams, or a load carried between two women (needs_source). ^{2 3} He mentions a house with two doors in which a family died in a fire, and a dream in which one of the wives tells him she came out through the narrow door; the transcript breaks off here (needs_source). ⁴

The Sheikh speaks of a widow with two or three children and says that she may accept to be half, a third or a quarter of a wife to an already married man, then asks his listeners whether that is so ⁵.