I have a question based on a speaker that came to the University of Idaho. I had been under the impression, based on what I've heard here and elsewhere, that it is accepted in Islam for men who can support multiple wives to marry up to 4 women at once. But the speaker, a muslim, in addressing women's equality in Islam, said this (quoted from the Argonaut) :

"The reason why the prophet was able to habe several wives was that God gave him the ability to treat all his wives with justice and equality and not to favor one more than the other.
The Justice equity was necessary for setting an example. But now men can't take several wives because God didn't give them the same justice equity that he gave the prophet because they are followers of the prophet, not example setters." The speaker went on to say that muslim men are in violation of Islamic principles if they take more than 1 wife.

Is that accurate? I had thought that it was not. I'm not trying to start a flame war over polygamy, just to understand what most Muslims believe.thanks.

Let me quote this from Ibn Uthaymeen's book on marriage,

In the time of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) a man called Ghaylaan ath-Thaqafee35 (radiyallaahu 'anhu) accepted Islaam and had with him ten wives. So the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) ordered him to choose from them four and separate (divorce) the rest. Qays Ibnul-Haarith (radiyallaahu 'anhu) said: "I embraced Islaam whilst having with me eight wives, so I went to the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and mentioned to him [my case] he said: "Keep four of them."36

36 Collected by Imaam Aboo Daawood in the Book of Divorce #2241

(A Concise Manual of Marriage)

That is what this scholar writes, the individual you hear speak needs to provide evidence for why he believes that, what one should realise is that there are conditions to marrying more than one wife, and the meaning of this conditions should be understood in context of Islamic sources, not our own understanding.

There needs to be justice, if a person can't have justice between his wives then he cannot marry, but what type of justice? A verse does state that we cannot do justice, but again what type of Justice? We as humans cannot do justice with regards to our feelings, but the justice spoken of in the conditions is justice of that which we do have control over, i.e. money, housing etc.

Allah knows best

so true, may allah reward you brother. the feeling is something that human cant control, but he has to watch himself in what he can control in the treatment to his wives

there is a reason for why polygamy in islam. for example if the husband wanna have children and the wife cant have, then he can marry another woman to have children it is better than doing the forbidden with another woman.

Ameen.

And yes sister mashaAlalh, there are many times where polygamy can work, and we can see the wisdom behind it. Though even if it seemed like there was no wisdom we should still believe it because Almighty God and His Messenger told us.