❖ Question:
What is the maximum limit of wives in marriage according to the Qur’an and Hadith?
Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
✿ Answer:
Islam has set a maximum limit of four wives for a man at one time.
❀ Allah the Exalted says:
فَانكِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَكُم مِّنَ النِّسَاءِ مَثْنَى وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَاعَ
(al-Nisā’: 3)
“Marry women of your choice, two, three, or four.”
❀ ʿAllāmah Ibn Baṭṭāl رحمه الله (d. 449H) said:
Ibn al-Qaṣṣār رحمه الله stated that it is not permissible for anyone to have more than four wives in his contract at one time. There is ijmāʿ (consensus) on this. Some deviants argued for nine wives by combining the numbers “two, three, and four” in the verse, citing the Prophet ﷺ who had nine wives at the time of his passing.
The correct view is that the numbers indicate choice (takhyīr), not addition. If nine were meant, the Qur’an would have explicitly stated “nine.” The allowance of more than four wives was a special ruling for the Prophet ﷺ only.
(Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 7/190)
❀ Al-Qurṭubī رحمه الله (d. 671H) wrote:
This verse does not permit nine wives, as some ignorant groups claimed. Their reasoning is contrary to language, Sunnah, and the consensus of the Ummah. None of the Companions or Tābiʿīn ever had more than four wives at once. The Prophet’s ﷺ having nine wives was a unique privilege granted only to him.
(Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī: 5/17)
❀ Al-Baghawī رحمه الله (d. 541H):
اتفقت الامة على ان الحر يجوز له ان ينكح اربع حرائر
“The Ummah has agreed that a free Muslim man may marry up to four free women.”
(Sharḥ al-Sunnah: 9/61)
❀ Ibn Kathīr رحمه الله (d. 774H):
مجمع عليه بين العلماء
“There is consensus among the scholars on this.”
(Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr: 2/209)
✔ Practical Evidence from the Prophet ﷺ
Sayyidunā ʿAbdullāh bin ʿUmar رضي الله عنه narrated:
When Sayyidunā Ghailān bin Salamah al-Thaqafī رضي الله عنه embraced Islam, he had ten wives. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded him to keep only four and release the rest.
(Sunan al-Dāraqutnī: 3/271; al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ al-Ṭabarānī: 1680; al-Sunan al-Kubrā al-Bayhaqī: 7/183 – with a ṣaḥīḥ chain)
Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar رحمه الله said:
رجال إسناده ثقات
“All the narrators of its chain are trustworthy.”
(al-Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr: 3/169)
Conclusion:
- A Muslim man can have up to four wives at the same time, no more.
- The allowance of nine wives was a special ruling for the Prophet ﷺ only.
- If a man embraces Islam with more than four wives, he must choose four and separate from the rest.
