Equality between wives

Distributing one's time equally between one's wives

Q: Can you please let me know what is the ruling regarding spending time with each wife. My sister's husband has recently got married to another woman after being in a relationship for many years. He states that having more than wife is a Sunnah but he is totally disregarding the feelings of his first wife and spends most of his time with his new wife. Can you please clarify how he should spend time with each wife. Also I find it hard to accept his reasoning that it is Sunnah. I feel that the word Sunnah is just covering up his wrong doings. Wrong is wrong. Please do not misunderstand me I understand fully the purpose of more than one wife and it being Sunnah. I have no objection to that at all. Loooking forward to your reply.

Second wife forgoing her rights to the first wife

Q: I am a married muslim man. Some days back I met a Muslim woman who is willing to marry me as my second wife. I just said no as we need to deal justly with both wives. Now my question is the woman who needs to marry me says that she does not need equal treatment, she says she will forgo her rights to the first wife. She told me to just make a fixed amount I can spend on her monthly and the days I can be with her. Now I want to know if the girl is ready to forgo her rights is that ok to marry her?

Equality between wives

Q: I already have a wife and I did a second nikaah about two months ago. She is in another country and her visa is under process. Only nikaah has been done and we are yet to start living together. (1) According to shariah, am I supposed to maintain equality in financial terms between the two wives even though the second one is yet to live with me? (2) If I purchase something for my first wife, am I supposed to purchase it for the other one also while she is not living with me? (3) If I give some cash to my first wife, am I supposed to give exactly the same amount to the second one also despite the fact that she is not living with me?

Practising equality when taking another wife

Q: A man is married for 15 odd years (with kids) and thereafter decides to take on a second wife. He has provided for his first wife a house of x value however wants to provide for his future second wife a smaller accommodation of lesser value. He says it is safer for her to stay in. The future second wife is not materialistic but his decision without her consent has already left her feeling inferior and she is now unsure about her future with this man. What is the ruling on this and what do you advise?

Equality between wives

Q: My husband wants to take a second wife. We have been living in my house for twenty years. He bought a house now to live with his second wife. According to Shari'ah, is he supposed to provide me also with a house? Also what are the conditions?