Non-Muslim has 6 wives and after some time he becomes Muslim
Question:
Suppose a Non-Muslim has 6 wives and after some time he becomes Muslim
He found that Shari’a allow only 4 wives?
Now what will he do? if he gave divorce to 2 wives? Then it is injustice with them?
Is he is allowed to have 6 wives?
Answer:
Salaams,
He will divorce the last two that came into the contract of Nikah and keep the first four wives. If he was a Muslim when he married to the 5th and 6th wives, then these marriages were not valid in Islam. They were totally null and void, seeing that he already had the maximum amount allowed in Islam. So, in this case, he was living illegally with the last two wives and committing grave sins by doing so. This is no injustice in Islam. In fact, the injustice was already done from the very beginning by getting married to six women. Why did this happen, when there was no allowance for this in any religion?
So, the grave wrong and injustice was already committed by the parties involved which must be corrected. The manner of correcting it is that the man will divorce two wives and keep four.
And Allah know best,
Mufti Waseem Khan
18/06/2012