Before delving into the actual subject matter of this article, I would advise you all to first go through the following Muslim Skeptic articles, if you haven’t already done so. It is hoped that, by first reading through these articles, you will become familiarized with the general subject of Sikhism, from its theology to its modern history. I have listed the articles here in order of importance (rather than the date they were published):

1. Sikhism’s Dubious Monotheism – Between Auto-Deification and Book Worship

2. Sikh Stories: Immoral “Moral Tales” in the Dasam Granth

3. Assassinated Singer and Persecuted Sikhs: Lessons for Indian Muslims

What we’ll be taking a look at here are certain social issues that modern Sikhs often like to weaponize against Islam, that is, the institutions of child marriage and polygamy. We shall see how, as is too common the case within polemics against Islam, this is in fact a self-sabotaging strategy.

Child Marriage Among Sikh Gurus

The Sikh Rehat Maryada is the “Sikh Code of Conduct and Conventions,” as it is often translated.

In its article XVIII, point d, it states:

Child marriage is taboo for Sikhs.

Behind such an unequivocal statement when it comes to Sikhism, however, there will always remain room for nuance. To begin with, it was adopted as late as 1945, when European liberalism, including its approach to gender relations, was the dominant philosophical force. Another contentious issue was that, by enforcing a Sikh orthodoxy (or orthopraxy), the Sikh authorities were effectively declaring numerous Sikh groups to be non-Sikhs. Among these groups, for example, are the Namdhari Sikhs, who believe that the “human succession” to the Sikh gurus did not end. They have their own contemporary spiritual leader, whereas “mainstream” Sikhs believe that, having succeeded the tenth “human” guru, their book, i.e., the Guru Grant Sahib, is the final, sovereign, and eternal guru.

Also, the Sikh gurus themselves had lived before the ideological intrusion of European liberalism. The inaugural guru, i.e., Guru Nanak, passed away in 1539, and the tenth and last “human guru,” i.e., Guru Gobind Singh, died in 1708.

And as you would naturally expect, they happened to follow the social customs of their time, which included child marriage.

Sikh writers say that Guru Nanak was anywhere between 14 and 18 years of age when he married Mata Sulakhni, who, as per SikhiWiki, “must have been about 14.” According to modern liberal standards, this would qualify as a child marriage. Furthermore, if you were to accept that the most authentic age for Guru Nanak at the time of his marriage was 18, as mentioned by SikhWiki and many other Sikh authorities, Guru Nanak would thus be classified as a “pedophile” by the modern liberal Westerners and also modernized and liberalized Sikhs who utilize this very framework to criticize and condemn the marriage of our beloved Prophet ﷺ to our mother ‘A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her).

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last of the “human gurus,” married Mata Jito when he was only 10 years old (Guru Gobind Singh was born in 1666, while the accepted date for their marriage is 1677).

You’ll notice that Sikh apologists will emphasize the “different social conditions” when it comes to their gurus, but they will refrain from making the same case for Islam, which appeared a 1000 years earlier. Of course, just to make it very clear, Muslims who are true to their faith accept the validity of child marriage in Islam. They don’t attempt to change their religion because they live in a world dominated by liberalism. Only those who have been socially engineered and brainwashed by liberalism and feminism would make such idiotic claims which undermine the veracity of their religion.

RELATED: Why Should Muslims Defend Slavery and Minor Marriage?

Polygamy Among Sikh Gurus

Some of the Sikh gurus also happened to be polygamous. Guru Har Gobind, the sixth guru, had three wives (Mata Damodari, Mata Nanaki, and Mata Mahadevi). The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, also had three wives (Mata Jito, Mata Sundari, and Mata Sahib Devan).

Influenced by modern liberal ethics, many Sikh apologists have tried desperately to deny this reality, arguing that there was perhaps a single woman with more than one name. This is something that is debated on their online spaces, including the influential Sikh Awareness forum where, as far back as 2003, a user had presented a systematic refutation of these modernist revisionist lies.

You’ll notice that those who do accept this reality yet still wish to be apologetic tend to argue that these marital alliances were enacted for merely “political reasons,” but, for some strange reason, when it comes to Islam, they seem to ignore everything else and see only “lust.”

Anyway, we see that things are far more nuanced than what the BBC asserts in its profile of Sikhism, i.e., that “Sikhism does not accept the practice of polygamy and teaches monogamy.”

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