Deedat claims “There is not a single word of reproach in the “Book of God”, the Holy Bible against polygamous marriages”. Except that is where there is. For example Jesus quotes Genesis when He says this “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. (Mark 10:5-9).” Or what Paul said “To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).”

So we see in both examples that we are talking about a union of two people becoming one. There is no mention of more than one wife for example – it is not a case of the three becoming one.

In case anyone thinks that being married to one woman until death we do depart is a New Testament teaching, this is what it says in the book of Malachi (Malachi 2:13-16) “Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.”

In this passage from Malachi we see again now we are talking about a single wife, Not multiple wives. We also see from this passage that God cares much about the wife and how she's treated in a relationship.

Besides all this God also commands kings not to have more than one wife. For example Deuteronomy 17:17 we read when giving instructions to the future kings “he must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.” King David and King Solomon both knew this but still chose to take more wives for themselves. In the case of King David this did not cause him to go away from God and he stayed true to his God all of his life, but with King Solomon we see that his many wives did course him to fall away from the true God and follow after idols. But in both cases the Bible clearly instructed them not to take many wives.

 

It is really rich that Deedat makes this attack against God’s doctrine. As is often done in Islam, he is trying to justify the teachings of Islam by trying to imply that the Bible is not against Islam’s doctrines. The doctrine of Islam allows a man to marry up to four wives at once (Muhammad married many more). He can easily divorce any of those wives without needing even a good reason – maybe she has got old or has put too much weight on. Islam has no realisation of how important the covenant of marriage is to God. God hates divorce.