The Remarriage of Widows in the View of Early Fathers

Marriage can face many troubles  that conjugal life becomes impossible with it, a man can marry a woman but life becomes unbearable for a certain reason; hatred might be generated for any reason, harmony and love might diminish and suspicion overwhelms, also among these reasons is bearing children which is necessary for life to go on.

However remarriage according to many saints is a sign of temptation of those who can't afford self-control, they are of the opinion" If fourth remarriage takes place, it will be outright prostitution and impurity."

 Other saints say the first marriage is legal, the second is tolerated, the third is considered and whoever remarries for the fourth time is as dirty as a pig.

Other saints say about a bout the third remarriage:

"The synods  not only state that those who remarry should be kept away from the church but also they are dirty container but those who remarry for the fifth time should be discarded like prostitutes."

Pope Gregory says

"If the second wife is abhorrent in Christianity, yet Christianity tolerates it for those unable to control themselves lest they should fall a prey to adultery so  the third should be completely out of mind except for those whose spouses died and unable to lead the life of austerity. 

"I do not only condemn the second or the third marriage but I consider that non-married and first time married people in the first degree then come the others. People always ask about the second or the third remarriage, I would answer them saying I don't  condemn the second or the third remarriage but in the same time I can't deny its many defects. I can't go beyond what Poe Paul had said."

The opinions or rather the orders of the early fathers of the church show to what extent the church people had suffered as all they were ordered to follow were and still are against the human nature.

To solve the problem of widowhood and celibacy  and what ensues from it, Islam allowed  polygamy. In Islam a man( a father or a brother) should offer his widow daughter or sister in marriage to a righteous persons, this shouldn't be done in outright language or rather in indirect suggestion(intimation). This can be done in the waiting period that follows the death of or the divorce of the ex-husband.

To encourage marriage Islam favored low dowry, it has made it so easy to the extent  that a man can be accepted to marry if he learn by heart some verses of Quran.

So the customs in Islam was that men would race to marry a widow who had already lost her husbands for any reasons, this was done to give the grieved widow and her orphans the due care, they sought to do this to please God and be rewarded.

Prophet Muhammad married only one virgin while all the ladies whom he married were widows though many virgins had been there.

The righteous companions followed the example of the prophet in this regard.

Think about this if his strategy is followed nowadays. Many widows in India die when they lose their husbands. Adultery is rampant among those who lose their husbands. Some may practice this heinous practice just to earn their livings.

Just think about the children who lost their fathers and have to bear the hardships of life alone.

So Islam, unlike Christianity , favoured the marriage of widows and even considered it a way to please God.