people use the deen to shut us down. We are told that is halal for our husbands to marry again without us knowing and testing before marriage isn't the norm. Women really are in a shitty situation.
This is a lack of knowledge in the deen, I am sure their are enough knowledgeable sisters to counter this thinking.
The sunnah, is to be open about your marriages, so hiding your marriage, especially from your wife makes 0 sense, if you announce marriage to your community how can your own family not know.
Second of all the wives of the Prophet salllallahu alayhi wasalam always knew when he married another women, to the point where they would narrate how he got married to his other wives.
Also in Islam trustworthiness is essential, marrying another women without the first knowing is deceit and will eventually lead to the man lying, no religious man would lie or decieve his wives constantly, also a wife must know about her rights in polgyny, so her not knowing she is in polgyny will lead to her not knowing her rights and eventually being oppressed or the other wife being oppressed.
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “
Conspiracy and treachery are in the Hellfire.”
Source: Shu’ab al-Imān 6581
Grade:
Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “
The believer is innocently generous and the wicked one is deceitfully malicious.”
Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 1964
Grade:
Hasan (fair) according to Al-Albani
Anas ibn Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “
Verily, preceding the False Messiah will be years of deception, in which the truthful are belied, the liars are believed, the trustworthy are discredited, the treacherous are trusted, and the disgraceful speak.” It was said, “Who are the disgraceful?” The Prophet said, “
Little wicked men who speak about the affairs of common people.”
Source: Musnad Aḥmad 13298
Grade:
Hasan (fair) according to Al-Arna’ut
Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “
Announce the marriage.”
Source: Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān 4066
Grade:
Hasan (fair) according to Al-Arna’ut
Ibn al-Qayyim said, “The Lawgiver has set conditions for marriage, in addition to the contract, in order to cut off any suspicion of promiscuity, such as announcing it, the guardian, and preventing a woman from conducting it by herself. It is encouraged to publicize it, even recommended to beat the drums, raise voices, and hold a banquet.”
Source: I’lām al-Muwaqqi’īn 3/113
I do hate the men who use the deen to get their own way, especially as men have more privilege to religious knowledge then women and usually are given the priority when it comes to rulings. I wish more women would seek knowledge in their deen because not knowing your own deen will eventually lead to you not fulfilling your rights and over people oppressing you. Here I blame men and the religious people of the community for not publicly denouncing this behaviour and going against it, it is contradictory to a functioning Islamic family for a man to constantly lie and be deceitful and is detrimental to his own religion and bad for his own family aswell, in the end the marriages always end up failing anyway.