My response
Dear Sir,
I agree for a good part with all of your points above except for the last statement about Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, permitting up to 4 wives. It wasn't the Prophet of Islam who permitted anything, but rather Allah Almighty. But I see your point clearly, and yes, the Noble Quran does indeed discourage polygamy. I have demonstrated this with several Noble Verses at: www.answering-christianity.com/polygamy.htm.
Polygamy is not always bad and discouraged. When Allah Almighty allowed polygamy in Islam, it was due to primarily protecting the orphans:
"If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice. (The Noble Quran, 4:3)"
Back then, when the Muslims fought their battles against the countless pagan tribes who waged many wars against Islam because they felt threatened from Islam since Islam called for the demolishing of all idols and only worshiping the One, Living and True GOD Almighty, many Muslim men found themselves with:
Orphan children of other Muslim warriors who died in the battle field.
Orphan children from the infidels' side.
Widowed and single women from the Muslims' side.
- Widowed and single women from the infidels' side.
So here we have Osama Abdallah (me) who only has one lovely wife with few children, and then all of the sudden, he finds himself given 20 orphan-children to take care of along with his own children that his wife is already busy with. What do we do? Allah Almighty allowed for Osama Abdallah to:
Sponsor these orphans and to marry up to four Muslim wives to take care of them.
Sponsor these orphans and only keep his one wife and bring instead few new harems to help take care of the orphans.
If Osama Abdallah sees that too much trouble will result in the future between the women - that he will find himself in a major civil war between them over him because he's just too handsome - and he is too busy to get involved and solve the problems, and the women will cause him too much headache through their endless fights and screaming, then Osama Abdallah will most certainly support such civil war....no ehmm#%&@....I mean Osama Abdallah will only keep one wife, becausehe is commanded by Allah Almighty to only keep his one and only lovely wife provided that the orphans are not compromised, because Allah Almighty clearly Said:"If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans..." Osama Abdallah will have to make that call based on his best and honest judgment :>) before Allah Almighty.
So as you clearly see, Allah Almighty's Divine Law regarding polygamy is quite just and beautiful in the Noble Quran. It's main reason was never to allow the man to sexually enjoy more women, but rather to solve a major social problem that occurred 1,500 years ago, and that is protecting the helpless orphans by the aid of as many women as needed, whether wives or harems!
May Allah Almighty continue to Lead you and open your heart to Islam. Ameen.
Conclusion
Islam does not allow marriage of multiple wives for males' sexual privileges and desires as Anti-Islamics claim. A normal man who makes enough money to keep him surviving in life can not provide a fair quality of life to all his wives, which means that he must not be allowed to marry multiple wives because he will only make his society worse.
Noble Verse 4:3 came to solve social problems. Unfortunately today, some Muslims intensify the Muslim's social problems in the Islamic poor countries by marrying multiple wives and bringing more and more illiterate and poor kids into the society which on the long run will only keep their entire society below the level of poverty. Therefore, Noble Verse 4:3 doesn't allow polygamy just for anyone or any reason and Noble Verse 4:129 certainly nullifies the excuse Allah Almighty gave to Muslim men to practice polygamy. Therefore, unless we have social or personal dilemmas where too many Muslim men were lost, or there is problems with the wife toward her husband, then polygamy should not be allowed nor justified in my Islamic view.
And Allah Almighty knows best, and may He forgive me if I made any mistakes in this article.