On his deathbed, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) continued to remind the followers of three areas as needing continuous attention. The first concerns man’s relationship with Allah while the other two are concerned with human relations, concentrating on the need to protect the rights of two vulnerable groups in society, namely, women and slaves. He said repeatedly: “Attend to your prayers. Do not ask those whom your right hands possess to accomplish for you what they cannot do. Fear Allah in your treatment of women.””

The eminent Muslim scholar, Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, said:
“The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Anyone who has two wives and does not treat them equally will come on the Day of Resurrection dragging one part of his body which will be hanging down.” (Reported by the compilers of Sunan and by Ibn Hibban and al-Hakim).

The equal treatment mentioned here regarding the rights of the wives does not include the love the husband has towed them as equality in the division of love is beyond human capacity. Thus, any imbalance in this regard is forgiven by Allah Almighty who says: “And you will not be able to do justice among (your) wives, however much you may wish to. But do not turn away (from one of them) altogether…” (An-Nisa’: 129).

Concerning this important issue, Dr. Rajab Abu Mleeh said that ‘Muslim husband with more than a wife should fear Allah and be just in dealing with their wives. This will distance them from Allah’s Punishment on the Day of Resurrection. In  addition, it is a sinful act for any husband to wrong one of his wife in favor of the other. However, if he is unable to share his time and other things between his wives equally due to something out of his capacity, such as in a case where by one of his wives has to live in another country etc., he should be dutiful to all of them as much as he can and to ask his wife, who does take her full rights from him, to pardon him for that, or to exempt him from some of her rights.

Divorce is not encouraged, as it is capable of leading to greater damages and oppression for the divorced woman. We encourage whoever Intends   to marry another wife to be sure about maintaining justice.

May Allah guide us to the straight path and direct us to that which pleases Him, Amen.”