The Quran permits a man to marry up to four wives, but only if he can treat them equally (Surah 4:3). Yet, it acknowledges that perfect equity is impossible (Surah 4:129). Either Islamic law permits unfairness, or its conditions are unenforceable.
P1. The Qur’an permits a man to marry up to four wives on the condition that he can deal justly with them (4:3).
P2. The Qur’an also states that men will never be able to be just between wives, even if they strongly desire it (4:129).
P3. If justice between multiple wives is required for polygamy to be legitimate, but that justice is admitted to be impossible, then either:
C. Therefore, either Islamic law knowingly allows structural unfairness in marriage, or it imposes an impossible condition that makes its own permission incoherent—both options undermine its claim to be perfectly wise and just.
Take 4:3 at face value: up to four wives is genuinely permitted if you “fear you can be just.”
Take 4:129 seriously: “You will never be able to be just between women, even if you desire it.”
That means the Qur’an allows an arrangement (multiple wives) in which it also concedes that real justice between them is impossible.
Result: The law builds in accepted unfairness, which contradicts the claim that Sharia is perfectly just.
Take the justice condition of 4:3 strictly: if you can’t be just, stick to one.
Combine it with 4:129: you never can truly be just between multiple wives.
Logically, that should collapse the permission to one wife only; the “up to four” rule becomes either:
Result: The Qur’an’s guidance on marriage is internally self-defeating: it grants a permission whose condition it simultaneously declares impossible, undermining its coherence as divine law.
So either Islam permits a structurally unjust marital system, or it gives a permission that can never truly meet its own conditions. In both cases, the claim of perfectly wise, just guidance takes a hit.