Houri

In Islam, a houri (/ˈhʊərri, ˈhaʊəri/;[1] Arabic: حُـورِيَّـة ,حُورِيّ, حَورَاء, romanized: ḥūriyy, ḥūrīya, hawraa’, lit. 'Companion'),[Note 1] or houris or hoor ayn in plural form, is a heavenly female with beautiful eyes who lives alongside the Muslim faithful in paradise.[3][4]

The term "houris" is used four times in the Quran,[2] although the houris are mentioned indirectly several other times, (sometimes as azwāj, lit. companions), and hadith provide a "great deal of later elaboration".[2] Muslim scholars differ as to whether they refer to the believing women of this world or a separate creation, with the majority opting for the latter.[5]

Houris have been said to have "captured the imagination of Muslims and non-Muslims alike".[2] According to hadith, faithful women of the Dunya will be superior to female houris in paradise.[6] Despite obvious parallels, houris are not perfectly analogous to Western Angels, as those are named separately in Quranic texts.

## Contents

* 1 Etymology
* 2 Descriptions in scripture and commentaries
* 2.1 Quranic description
* 2.2 Hadith description
* 2.3 Quranic commentators
* 2.3.1 Contemporary
* 2.3.2 Imam Reza
* 2.4 Symbolism
* 2.5 Similarities to Zoroastrianism
* 3 Gender and identity
* 3.1 Relation to earthly women
* 4 Disputed sexualised descriptions
* 4.1 Sexual intercourse in Paradise
* 4.2 Reference to "72 virgins"
* 4.3 Outsider translations of the Qur'an
* 4.3.1 N. J. Dawood
* 4.3.2 Marmaduke Pickthall
* 4.3.3 Christoph Luxenberg's Syriac raisins
* 4.4 Fully grown adults
* 4.4.1 Meaning of the term kawa'ib
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 6.1 Notes
* 6.2 Citations
* 6.3 Bibliography
* 7 External links

## Etymology

In classical Arabic usage, the word ḥūr (Arabic: حُور) is the plural of both ʾaḥwar (Arabic: أحْوَر) (masculine) and ḥawrāʾ (Arabic: حَوْراء) (feminine)[7] which can be translated as "having eyes with an intense contrast of white and black".[8]

The word "houri" entered several European languages in the 17th and 18th centuries.[9]

Arthur Jeffery and other scholars suggests an Iranian origin for the term, proposing the origins of the word to be the Middle Persian hū̆rust 'well grown'.[10]

## Descriptions in scripture and commentaries

See also: Houri § Disputed sexualised descriptions

### Quranic description

In the tafsirs and commentaries on the Quran, Houris are described as:

* 37:48[11] "with large and beautiful eyes",[12]
* 38:52[13] "companions of modest gaze well matched",[14]
* 44:54[15] "wide and beautiful eyes",[16]
* 52:20[17] "beautiful houris of wide and beautiful eyes",[18]
* 55:56[19][20][21] "untouched beforehand by man or jinn",[22]
* 55:58 "as elegant as rubies and coral",[23]
* 55:72[24] "bright-eyed damsels sheltered in pavilions",[25]
* 55:74[26] "untouched by any man",[25] "reclining on green cushions and beautiful carpets",[25]
* 56:8[27][28][29] "the people of the right, how ˹blessed˺ will they be"[30] 56:22[31] and they will have "houris, maidens with intensely black eyes set against the whiteness of their irises",[32]
* 56:35[33] "created without the process of birth",[32]
* 78:31–33[34][35] and as "splendid companions",[36]
* 44:54 "Thus. And We will marry them to fair women with large, [beautiful] eyes".[37]

It is thought that the four verses specifically mentioning Houri were all "probably" 'revealed' at "the end of the first Meccan period".[38]

### Hadith description

Details of descriptions of houri (or ḥūr), in hadith collections differ, but one summary (by Smith & Haddad) states:[2]

> they are generally said to be composed of saffron from the feet to the knees, musk from the knees to the breast, amber from the breast to the neck, and camphor from the neck to the head.[39] Working often with multiples of seven, the traditionalists have described them as wearing seventy to 70,000 gowns, through which even the marrow of their bones can be seen because of the fineness of their flesh, reclining on seventy couches of red hyacinth encrusted with rubies and jewels, and the like. The ḥūr do not sleep, do not get pregnant, do not menstruate, spit, or blow their noses, and are never sick.[40]

In hadith, Houris have been described as "transparent to the marrow of their bones",[41][42] "eternally young",[43] "hairless except the eyebrows and the head",[43] "pure"[42] and "beautiful".[42] Sunni hadith scholars also relate a number of sayings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in which the houris are mentioned.

* A narration related by Bukhari states that

> Everyone will have two wives from the houris, (who will be so beautiful, pure and transparent that) the marrow of the bones of their legs will be seen through the bones and the flesh.[44]

* Another, reported by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nishapuri, relates that

> The first group to get into Paradise will be like the full moon during the night, and the one following this group will be like the most luminescent of the sky's shining stars in the sky; each man among them will have two spouses, the marrow of whose shanks will glimmer be visible from beneath the flesh—none will be without a spouse in Paradise.[45]

* Al-Tirmidhi reports

> Al-Hasan Al-Basri says that an old woman came to the messenger of God and asked, O Messenger of God make dua that God grants me entrance into Jannah. The Messenger of God replied, "O Mother, an old woman cannot enter Jannah." That woman started crying and began to leave. The Messenger of God said, "Say to the woman that one will not enter in a state of old age, but God will make all the women of Jannah young virgins. God Most High says, 'Lo! We have created them a (new) creation and made them virgins, lovers, equal in age.'"[46]

* According to a report transmitted by Ibn Majah in his Sunan:

> A woman does not annoy her husband but his spouse from amongst the maidens with wide eyes intensely white and deeply black will say: "Do not annoy him, may Allah ruin you. He is with you as a passing guest. Very soon, he will part with you and come to us".[47][48][49]

### Quranic commentators

Sunni sources mention that like all men and women of Paradise, the houris do not experience urination, defecation or menstruation.[50]

Ibn Kathir states that jinns will have female jinn companions in Paradise.[51]

#### Contemporary

According to Smith and Haddad, if there is any generalization that can be made of "contemporary attitudes" toward the nature of the hereafter, including Houri, it is that it is "beyond human comprehension ... beyond time", that the Quran only "alluded to analogously".[52]

#### Imam Reza

According to 8th Shia Imam, Imam Reza, the heavenly spouses are created of dirt (Creation of life from clay) and saffron.[53]

### Symbolism

Muhammad Asad believes that the references to houris and other depictions of paradise should be understood as allegorical rather than literal, citing the "impossibility of man's really 'imagining' paradise". In support of this view he quotes Quran verse 32:17[54] and a hadith found in Bukhari and Muslim.[55]

Shia philosopher Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai mentions that the most important fact of the description of the houris is that good deeds performed by believers are re-compensated by the houris, who are the physical manifestations of ideal forms that will not fade away over time and who will serve as faithful companions to those whom they accompany.[56]

### Similarities to Zoroastrianism

The houri has been said to resemble afterlife figures in Zoroastrianism narratives:

> The Zoroastrian text, Hadhoxt Nask, describes the fate of a soul after death. The soul of the righteous spends three nights near the corpse, and at the end of the third night, the soul sees its own religion (daena) in the form of a beautiful damsel, a lovely fifteen year-old virgin; thanks to good actions she has grown beautiful; they then ascend heaven together.[57] The orientalist Arthur Jeffery argues in his book Foreign 'Vocabulary of the Qur’an' that the two concepts closely correspond to each other. Possibly the word "houri" also has an Iranian origin, but this is heavily debated among scholars. Jeffery believes it might have been borrowed from the Pahlavi word 'hurūst'. Although the word itself might have been borrow by the Arabs from Aramaic, the relation to the 'maidens of paradise' likely came under influence of this Pahlavi word,[58]

## Gender and identity

It has traditionally been believed that the houris are beautiful women who are promised as a reward to believing men,[59] with numerous hadith and Quranic exegetes describing them as such.[60] In recent years, however, some have argued that the term ḥūr refers both to pure men and pure women (it being the plural term for both the masculine and feminine forms which refer to whiteness) and the belief that the term houris only refers to females who are in paradise is a misconception.[59]

The Quran uses feminine as well as gender-neutral adjectives to describe houris,[61][62][63] by describing them with the indefinite adjective عِينٌ, which some have taken to imply that certain passages are referring to both male and female companions.[64] In addition, the use of masculine pronouns for the houris' companions does not imply that this companionship is restricted to men, as the masculine form encompasses the female in classical and Quranic Arabic—thus functioning as an all-gender including default form—and is used in the Quran to address all humanity and all the believers in general.[65][66][67][Note 2]

In The Message of The Qur'an, Muhammad Asad describes the usage of the term ḥūr in the verses 44:54 and 56:22, arguing that "the noun ḥūr—rendered by me as 'companions pure'—is a plural of both aḥwār (masc.) and ḥawrā' (fem.)... hence, the compound expression ḥūr ʿīn signifies, approximately, 'pure beings, most beautiful of eye'."[68][69]

Annemarie Schimmel says that the Quranic description of the houris should be viewed in a context of love: "every pious man who lives according to God's order will enter Paradise where rivers of milk and honey flow in cool, fragrant gardens and virgin beloveds await home".[70]

### Relation to earthly women

Regarding the eschatological status of this-worldly women vis-à-vis the houris, scholars have maintained that righteous Human women of this life are of a higher station than Men’s Female Hoors.[5] Sunni theologian Aḥmad al-Ṣāwī (d. 1825), in his commentary on Ahmad al-Dardir's work, states, "The sound position is that the women of this world will be seventy thousand times better than the dark-eyed Fair Ones (ḥūr ʿīn)."[71] Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar Baḥraq (d.1524) mentions in his didactic primer for children that "Adamic women are better than the dark-eyed Damsels due to their prayer, fasting, and devotions".[72]

Other authorities appear to indicate that houris themselves are the women of this world resurrected in new form, with Razi commenting that among the houris mentioned in the Quran will also be "[even] those toothless old women of yours whom God will resurrect as new beings".[73][74] Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari mentions that all righteous women, however old and decayed they may have been on earth, will be resurrected as virginal maidens and will, like their male counterparts, remain eternally young in paradise.[75] Modernist scholar Muḥammad ʿAbduh states "the women of the Garden are the good believers [al-mu'mināt al-ṣalihāt] known in the Qur'an as al-ḥūr al-ʿayn, (although he also makes a distinction between earthly women and houri).[76]

Verses that are thought to refer to women from earth in paradise (Q.2:25, 3:15, and 4:57) talk of "purified companions" [azwāj muṭahhara], which distinguishes them from ḥūr, who are by definition "pure rather than purified".[38]

## Disputed sexualised descriptions

### Sexual intercourse in Paradise

In the Quran, there is no overt mention of sexual intercourse in Paradise.[77] However, it is alluded to in hadiths, tafsirs[78][79] and Islamic commentaries.[80][81][82][83]

### Reference to "72 virgins"

"72 virgins" redirects here. For other uses, see 72 virgins (disambiguation) and Islamophobic trope § 72 virgins.

The Sunni hadith scholar Al-Tirmidhi quotes Muhammad as having said:

> The smallest reward for the people of Heaven is an abode where there are eighty thousand servants and seventy-two houri, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from al-Jabiyyah to Sanaa.[84][85]

However, others object that the narration granting all men seventy-two wives has a weak chain of narrators.[86]

Another hadith, also in Jamiʽ at-Tirmidhi and deemed "good and sound" (hasan sahih) gives this reward specifically for the martyr:

> There are six things with Allah for the martyr. He is forgiven with the first flow of blood (he suffers), he is shown his place in Paradise, he is protected from punishment in the grave, secured from the greatest terror, the crown of dignity is placed upon his head—and its gems are better than the world and what is in it—he is married to seventy-two wives among the wide-eyed houris (Ar. اثْنَتَيْنِ وَسَبْعِينَ زَوْجَةً مِنَ الْحُورِ الْعِينِ) of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives.[87]

This hadith is sometimes erroneously attributed to the Quran.[88][89]

### Outsider translations of the Qur'an

#### N. J. Dawood

The translation of the "Koran" (Qur'an) by N. J. Dawood, published as a Penguin paperback, describes houris as "chaste" and "virgins".[90] Dawood was a native speaker of Arabic but not a Muslim or a religious scholar.[91][92] His expertise was poetry and his translation treated the text as a work of artistic literature. His 1956 edition re-ordered the Surahs to match the Bible, to make it easier for Western readers to understand. Ziauddin Sardar, criticized Dawood' translation as containing "distortions that give the Qur'an violent and sexist overtones", in an article published by The Guardian comparing to a modern translation by Tarif Khalidi.[93] Sardar described the very popular Dawood translation as "largely responsible for the current misconception that Muslim paradise is full of "virgins" - despite the fact that the Qur'an explicitly denies any carnal pleasures in paradise".[94] Dawood's knowledge of the Arabic language is extensive and respected, and he also translated government documents, but him not being Muslim has made his translation controversial.[92]

#### Marmaduke Pickthall

Houris are also described as virgins in the translation by Marmaduke Pickthall.[90]

#### Christoph Luxenberg's Syriac raisins

Christoph Luxenberg, in his German language book "The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran" (German: Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran), claimed that the word for Houris meant white raisins, based on its machining in Syriac Aramaic.[90][additional citation(s) needed]

### Fully grown adults

The virgins of paradise "they will be of one age, thirty-three years old", according to Ibn Kathir (as reported by Ad-Dahhak aka Ibn Abi Asim), based on his interpretation of the word Atrab (Arabic: أَتْرَابًا) in Q.56:37).[95][14]

However, another interpretation of Atrab (in Q.56:37 and also Q.78:33) by Muhammad Haleen describes Houri "as being of similar age to their companions".[96] An Islamic Books pamphlet also states Houri will "have the same age as their husbands so that they can relate to each other better", but also adds that they will "never become old";[97] (Translations of Q.56:37 and Q.78:33—for example by Mustafa Khattab's the Clear Quran and by Pickthall—often include the phrase "equal age" but do not specify what the houris are of equal age to.)

On the other hand, the houris were created "without the process of birth", according to a classical Sunni interpretation of Q.56:35 in Tafsir al-Jalalayn,[Note 3] so that the heavenly virgins have no birthday or age in the earthly sense. Other sources, including a tafsir of Ibn Kathir (see above), emphasize the purpose of the use of kawa'ib in verse Q.78:33 "is to highlight the woman’s youthfulness", though she is an adult, she "has reached the age when she begins to menstruate";[99] and that she is of the age of "young girls when their breasts are beginning to appear".[77] At least one person (M Faroof Malik) translates Arabic: قَـٰصِرَٰتُ ٱلطَّرْفِ in verse Q.55:56 as "bashful virgins".[100]

#### Meaning of the term kawa'ib

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Verse Q.78:33 describes Houri with the noun ka'ib, translated as "with swelling breasts"[101] by several translators—like Arberry, Palmer, Rodwell and Sale (it is also translated as "buxom" or "full bosomed").[102] At least two Islamic Fatwa sites (islamweb.net and islamqa.info) have attacked the use of these translations by those who "criticize the Quran",[103] or who "seek to make Islam appear to be a religion of sex and desire".[104]

Ibn Kathir, in his tafsir, writes that kawa'ib has been interpreted to refer to "fully developed" or "round breasts ... they meant by this that the breasts of these girls will be fully rounded and not sagging, because they will be virgins."[105] Similarly, the authoritative Arabic–English Lexicon of Edward William Lane defines the word ka'ib as "A girl whose breasts are beginning to swell, or become prominent, or protuberant or having swelling, prominent, or protuberant, breasts".[106][Note 4]

However, M. A. S. Abdel Haleem and others point out that the description here refers in classical usage to the young age rather than emphasizing the women's physical features.[77][109] Others, such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali, translate ka'ib as "companions",[110] with Muhammad Asad interpreting the term as being allegorical.[111]

## See also

* Islamophobic trope § 72 virgins
* Apsara
* Garden of Eden
* Jannah
* Maid of Heaven (Bahá'í faith)
* Peri
* Women in Islam

## References

### Notes

1. ↑ حورية is also transliterated as ḥūriyyah or ḥūriyya, ar. adjectival and feminine singular formation from حُـور, plural of masculine singular aḥwar أحور and feminine singular ḥawrā’ حوراء the complete name, ḥur ʿayn Arabic: حور عين "literally means having eyes with marked contrast of black and white"[2]
2. ↑ In these verses, God addresses the believers, male and female alike, and orders them to speak وَقُولُوا (masculine form) and listen وَاسْمَعُوا (masculine form), using the grammatical masculine form although the addressed group includes females.
3. ↑
* "Indeed, We will have perfectly created their mates" (Q.56:35)
can be interpreted as "Verily We have created them with an unmediated creation namely the wide-eyed houris We created them without the process of birth", according to a classical Sunni interpretation of the Quran, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (translated by Feras Hamza)[98]
4. ↑ islamweb.net states: "{Kawaa‘ib} means round-breasted";[107] and islamqa.info translates Q.78:33 as “And young full-breasted (mature) maidens of equal age”[108]

### Citations

1. ↑ houri (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press, September 2005, http://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=houri, retrieved 30 September 2024 (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.164
3. ↑ "Houri" . Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
4. ↑ "Definition of HOURI" (in en). https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/houri.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. New York, NY: HarperCollins. 2015. ISBN 978-0-06-112586-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=GVSzBgAAQBAJ.
6. ↑ Soysal, Gökhan (2022-03-28). "What Will Women Receive in Paradise for Controlling Their Anger?" (in en-US). https://seekersguidance.org/answers/eschatology/what-will-women-receive-in-paradise-for-controlling-their-anger/.
7. ↑ see Lane's Lexicon, p. 666 and Hans Wehr, p. 247
8. ↑ Wehr's Arabic-English Dictionary, 1960.
9. ↑ Rustomji, Nerina (2021-09-02), Rustomji, Nerina, ed., "The Word", The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford University Press): pp. 0, ISBN 978-0-19-024934-2, https://academic.oup.com/book/39996/chapter-abstract/340322721?redirectedFrom=fulltext, retrieved 2024-11-19
10. ↑ Cheung, Johnny (2016-06-06) (in en), On the (Middle) Iranian borrowings in Qur'ānic (and pre-Islamic) Arabic, https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01445860, retrieved 2023-02-09
11. ↑ "Quran 37:48". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/37/48.
12. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir As-Saaffat". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=37&tAyahNo=48&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
13. ↑ "Quran 38:52". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/38/52.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir Saad". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=38&tAyahNo=52&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
15. ↑ "Quran 44:54". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/44/54.
16. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir Ad-Dukhan". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=44&tAyahNo=54&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
17. ↑ "Quran 52:20". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/52/20.
18. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir At-Tur". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=52&tAyahNo=20&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
19. ↑ "Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Al Rahman, Arabic English, HTMl, PDF, Free Download". Quran4u.com. http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir Ibn Kathir/055 Rahman.htm.
20. ↑ "Quran 55:56". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/55/56.
21. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "TafsirAr-Rahman". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=55&tAyahNo=56&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
22. ↑ "Surah Ar-Rahman - 56". https://quran.com/55/56?translations=38,85,84,22,101,17,18,95.
23. ↑ "Ayah ar-Rahman (The Beneficent, The Mercy Giving, The Merciful) 55:58". https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/55/58/.
24. ↑ "Quran 55:72". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/55/72.
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir Ar-Rahman". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=55&tAyahNo=72&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
26. ↑ "Quran 55:74". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/55/74.
27. ↑ "Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Al Waqiah, Arabic English, HTMl, PDF, Free Download". Quran4u.com. http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir Ibn Kathir/056 Waqiah.htm.
28. ↑ "Quran 56:8". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/56/8.
29. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir Ar-Al-Waqi'a". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=56&tAyahNo=8&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
30. ↑ "Al-Waqi'ah 56:8, (translation, Dr., Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran)". https://quran.com/56/5-30.
31. ↑ "Quran 56:22". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/56/22.
32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir Al-Waqi'a". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=56&tAyahNo=22&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
33. ↑ "Quran 56:35". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/56/35.
34. ↑ "Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Al Naba, Arabic English, HTMl, PDF, Free Download". Quran4u.com. http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir Ibn Kathir/078 Naba.htm.
35. ↑ "Quran 78:31". Islam Awakened. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/78/31.
36. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir An-Naba'". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=78&tAyahNo=33&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
37. ↑ AboeIsmail (2019-03-12). "Surah 44: ad-Dukhan" (in en). https://quranonline.net/ad-dukhan/.
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.165
39. ↑ Kitāb aḥwāl al-qiyāma, p. 111. References to the general description of the ḥūr are abundant in the collections of traditions; see, for example, the summary and numerous citations of Ṣoubḥi El-Ṣaleḥ, La Vie Future selon le Coran. Paris: Librarie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1971, p.25. quoted in Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.164
40. ↑ La Vie Future selon le Coran, p.39. quoted in Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.164
41. ↑ Abu ʽIsa Muhammad ibn ʽIsa at-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Vol. 2.
42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:54:476
43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Abu ʽIsa Muhammad ibn ʽIsa at-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, hadith: 5638
44. ↑ Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:54:476
45. ↑ Sahih Muslim, 40:6793
46. ↑ Shamaa-il Tirmidhi, Chapter 035, Hadith Number 006 (230)
47. ↑ Muadh bin Jabal. "Sunan Ibn Majah – The Chapters on Marriage". AHadith.com. https://ahadith.co.uk/chapter.php?page=18&cid=167&rows=10.
48. ↑ "Index of Islam". https://muslimhope.com/IslamIndex.htm.
49. ↑ "Book on the Etiquette of Marriage". http://www.ghazali.org/works/marriage.htm.
50. ↑ Al Ghazzali, Ihya ʿUlum al-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) Vol. 4
51. ↑ Ismail ibn Kathir (2000). "The Reward of Those on the Right After". Tafsir ibn Kathir.
52. ↑ Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.167-8
53. ↑ "حوریان بهشتی فقط برای مردان؟!". موسسه فرهنگی و اطلاع رسانی تبیان. 4 January 2012. https://article.tebyan.net/193001/حوریان-بهشتی-فقط-برای-مردان-.
54. ↑ Quran 32:17
55. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/TheMessageOfTheQuran_20140419/55877864-54484011-Message-of-Quran-Muhammad-Asad-Islam-Translation_djvu.txt ""what is kept hidden for them [by way] of a joy of the eyes", i.e., of blissful delights, irrespective of whether seen, heard or felt. The expression "what is kept hidden for them" clearly alludes to the unknowable - and, therefore, only allegorically describable - quality of life in the hereafter. The impossibility of man's really "imagining" paradise has been summed up by the Prophet in the well-authenticated hadith; "God says: 'I have readied for My righteous servants what no eye has ever seen, and no ear has ever heard, and no heart of man has ever conceived'" (Bukhari and Muslim, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah; also Tirmidhi). This hadith has always been regarded by the Companions as the Prophet's own comment on the above verse'(cf. Fath al-Bari VIII, 418 f.). "
56. ↑ Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, Tafsir al-Mizan
57. ↑ Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, 1995: p.47
58. ↑ The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʼān . BRILL. 2007. ISBN 978-90-04-15352-3. Archived from the original on 2023-08-30.
59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 "Are all 'houris' female?". 9 June 2011. https://www.dawn.com/news/635343.
60. ↑ "Question 10053. Will men in Paradise have intercourse with al-hoor aliyn?". https://islamqa.info/en/answers/10053/will-men-in-paradise-have-intercourse-with-al-hoor-aliyn.
61. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=56&verse=22.
62. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=52&verse=20.
63. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=55&verse=72.
64. ↑ Asad, M.. The Message of the Quran, Surah 56:22 [8]. "The noun hur—rendered by me as companions pure—is a plural of both ahwar (masc.) and hawra' (fem.)"
65. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=2&verse=104.
66. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=2&verse=93.
67. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=2&verse=172.
68. ↑ Ibid The Message of the Quran by M. Asad, Surah 56:22 note [8].
69. ↑ Ibid The Message of the Quran by M. Asad, Surah 44:54 note [30]. "For the rendering of hur 'in as 'companions pure, most beautiful of eye', see surah {56}, notes [8] and [13]. It is to be noted that the noun zawj (lit., 'a pair' or – according to the context – 'one of a pair') applies to either of the two sexes, as does the transitive verb zawaja, 'he paired' or 'joined', i.e., one person with another."
70. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel, Islam: An Introduction, p. 13, "Muhammad"
71. ↑ al-Ṣāwī, Aḥmad (1947). Ḥashiyat ʿAlā Sharḥ al-Kharīdat al-Bahīyah. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa Awlāduh. p. 67. https://archive.org/details/khareda. "والصحيح: أنّ نساء الدنيا يكنّ أفضل من الحور العين بسبعين ألف ضعف."
72. ↑ Bahraq al-Yamanī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar (1996). Ḥilyat al-Banāt wa'l-Banīn wa Zīnat al-Dunyā wa'l-Dīn. Dār al-Ḥāwī. p. 129. https://archive.org/details/Hlyat.Albnatwal.banin/page/n128. "والنّساء الآدميّات أفضل من الحور العين بصلاتهنّ وصيامهنّ وعبادتهنّ."
73. ↑ Asad, M. (2003). "(Surah) 56 Al-Waqiah, ayah 22". The Message of The Qur'an. Al-Hasan, quoted by Razi in his comments on 44:54.
74. ↑ Ismail ibn Kathir (2000). "(Surah) 56 Al-Waqiah ayat 35–36". Tafsir ibn Kathir. The Reward of Those on the Right After.
75. ↑ Asad, M. (2003). "(Surah) 56 Al-Waqiah, ayat 35–36". The Message of The Qur'an.
76. ↑ Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.166
77. ↑ 77.0 77.1 77.2 Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel (2011). "Paradise in the Qur'an". Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Style. I.B Tauris. pp. 235. ISBN 9781845117894. https://archive.org/details/understandingqur00hale.
78. ↑ Ibn Kathir, Tafsir ibn Kathir (Quranic Commentary), "The Reward of Those on the Right After", [Chapter (Surah) Al-Waqiah (That Which Must Come To Pass)(56):35–36], Dar-us-Salam Publications, 2000, ISBN 1591440203
79. ↑ "Will men in Paradise have intercourse with al-hoor aliyn?". IslamQA. 30 August 2000. https://islamqa.info/en/answers/10053/will-men-in-paradise-have-intercourse-with-al-hoor-aliyn.
80. ↑ Imam Muhammad Ibn Majah. "Volume 5:37 Book of Zuhd 4337". Muflihun.com. https://muflihun.com/ibnmajah/37/4337.
81. ↑ al-Jalalayn. "Tafsir Yā Sīn". Tafsir al-Jalalayn. https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=36&tAyahNo=55&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
82. ↑ Bouhdiba, Abdelwahab (2008). Sexuality in Islam. Routledge. pp. 75–76. ISBN 9780415426008. https://books.google.com/books?id=sIRsgQ5639oC&pg=PA76.
83. ↑ Abdul-Rahman, Muhammad Saed (2003). Islam: Questions and Answers: Basic Tenets of Faith: Belief (Part 2). MSA Publication Ltd. pp. 415–419. ISBN 1861790864. https://books.google.com/books?id=t-q0sI_3KZEC&q=415.
84. ↑ "Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2562 - Chapters on the description of Paradise - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)". https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2562.
85. ↑ "Various Questions Answered by Shaykh Gibril Haddad". Living Islam. http://www.livingislam.org/fiqhi/sp2-gfh_e.html#9.
86. ↑ Salahuddin Yusuf, Riyadhus Salihin, commentary on Nawawi, Chapter 372, Dar-us-Salam Publications (1999), ISBN 1-59144-053-X, ISBN 978-1-59144-053-6
87. ↑ "Hadith – The Book on Virtues of Jihad - Jami'at-Tirmidhi". http://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/22/46.
88. ↑ Warraq, Ibn (January 12, 2002). "Virgins? What virgins?". The Guardian (London). https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/12/books.guardianreview5.
89. ↑ Anjali Nirmal (2009). Urban Terrorism: Myths and Realities. Pointer Publishers. p. 33. ISBN 978-8171325986. https://books.google.com/books?id=8EqWnqdsgZMC&pg=PA33.
90. ↑ 90.0 90.1 90.2 quote https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/12/books.guardianreview5
91. ↑ "NJ Dawood - obituary - Telegraph". 2014-12-11. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11287854/NJ-Dawood-obituary.html.
92. ↑ 92.0 92.1 "The Jewish master of Arabic | the Jerusalem Post". 22 January 2015. https://www.jpost.com/international/the-jewish-master-of-arabic-388614.
93. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/21/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview26#:~:text=While Dawood's translation presents the,gardens they have immaculate spouses."
* quote: "Dawood translates Az-Zumar (chapter 39) as "The Hordes", suggesting bands of barbarian mobs; Khalidi renders it as "The Groups"."
* quote: (reviewing Tarif Khalidi's new translation to older versions) "The translation I have in mind is Khalidi's predecessor in the Penguin Classics: The Koran, translated with notes by NJ Dawood. First published in 1956, Dawood's translation has been republished in numerous editions. It has been a great source of discomfort for Muslims, who see in it deliberate distortions that give the Qur'an violent and sexist overtones. It is the one most non-Muslims cite when they tell me with great conviction what the Qur'an says."
94. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/21/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview26 quote: "While Dawood's translation presents the Qur'an as a patriarchal, sexist text, Khalidi brings out the gender-neutral language of the original. A good example is provided by 2:21. In Dawood we read: "Men, serve your Lord." In Khalidi, it becomes: "O People! Worship your Lord." Dawood's translation of the famous verse 2:25, frequently quoted, is largely responsible for the current misconception that Muslim paradise is full of "virgins" - despite the fact that the Qur'an explicitly denies any carnal pleasures in paradise. This is because we find "men" in Dawood's translation in the garden of paradise who are "wedded to chaste virgins". Khalidi renders it correctly: "In these gardens they have immaculate spouses"."
95. ↑ "Tafsir Ibn Kathir (English) Surah Al Waqiah. The Reward of Those on the Right After. أَتْرَابًا (Atrab)". http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir Ibn Kathir/056 Waqiah.htm.
96. ↑ Abdel Haleem, Muhammad (1999). Understanding the Quran; Themes and Styles. I.B. Tauris. p. 99. https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Abdel-Haleem-Understanding-the-Quran.pdf. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
97. ↑ Al-Hoor-al-Hayn, Women of Paradise. Islamic Books. n.d.. https://archive.org/details/hoor-al-ayn-women-of-paradise. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
98. ↑ "56:35". https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=56&tAyahNo=35&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2.
99. ↑ Saalih al-Munajjid, Muhammad (Supervisor). "Do the words of Allah, "And full-breasted maidens of equal age (wa kawaa'ib atraaban)" describe the breasts of al-hoor al-'iyn?". https://islamqa.info/en/answers/193409/do-the-words-of-allah-and-full-breasted-maidens-of-equal-age-wa-kawaaib-atraaban-describe-the-breasts-of-al-hoor-al-iyn.
100. ↑ "Quran 55:65". https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/55/56/.
101. ↑ Quran 78:33
102. ↑ "Generally Accepted Translations of the Meaning of Q.78:33". https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/78/33/default.htm.
103. ↑ "Meaning of {Farjaha} in verse 66:12 and {Kawaa'ib} in 78:33". 29 January 2013. https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/196567/meaning-of-farjaha-in-verse-6612-and-kawaaib-in-7833.
104. ↑ "The description of the breasts of al-hoor al-'iyniyn is a lie and is a fabrication against the texts #243879". 26 October 2016. https://islamqa.info/en/answers/243879/the-description-of-the-breasts-of-al-hoor-al-iyn-is-a-lie-and-is-a-fabrication-against-the-texts.
105. ↑ Ibn Kathir. Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Abridged, Volume 10 Surat At-Tagabun to the end of the Qur'an. pp. 333–334. https://archive.org/details/TafsirIbnKathirVolume0110English_201702.
106. ↑ كعب in Lane's lexicon.
107. ↑ "Meaning of {Farjaha} in verse 66:12 and {Kawaa'ib} in 78:33". 29 January 2013. https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/196567/meaning-of-farjaha-in-verse-6612-and-kawaaib-in-7833.
108. ↑ "The description of the breasts of al-hoor al-'iyniyn is a lie and is a fabrication against the texts #243879". 26 October 2016. https://islamqa.info/en/answers/243879/the-description-of-the-breasts-of-al-hoor-al-iyn-is-a-lie-and-is-a-fabrication-against-the-texts.
109. ↑ "Do the words of Allah, 'And full-breasted maidens of equal age (wa kawaa'ib atraaban)' describe the breasts of al-hoor al-'iyn?". IslamQA. 29 April 2013. https://islamqa.info/en/answers/193409/do-the-words-of-allah-and-full-breasted-maidens-of-equal-age-wa-kawaaib-atraaban-describe-the-breasts-of-al-hoor-al-iyn.
110. ↑ Abdullah Yusuf Ali: The Meanings of the Illustrious Qur'an, Alminar Books, Houston, TX, 1997
111. ↑ Asad, M. (2003). "(Surah) 56 Al-Waqiah, ayah 38". The Message of The Qur'an. "As regards my rendering of kawa’ib as 'splendid companions', it is to be remembered that the term ... from which it is derived has many meanings ... one of these meanings is 'prominence', 'eminence' or 'glory' (Lisan al-Arab) ... If we bear in mind that the Qur'anic descriptions of the blessings of paradise are always allegorical, we realize that in the above context the term kawa’ib can have no other meaning than 'glorious [or splendid] beings'."

### Bibliography

* Abdel Haleem, Muhammad (1999). Understanding the Quran; Themes and Styles. I.B. Tauris. p. 99. https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Abdel-Haleem-Understanding-the-Quran.pdf. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
* Smith, Jane Idleman; Haddad, Yvonne Y. (1981). The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection. Albany: State University of New York Press. doi:10.1093/0195156498.001.0001.002.013. ISBN 0-87395-506-4. https://vdoc.pub/download/the-islamic-understanding-of-death-and-resurrection-1fa354cla15g. Retrieved 28 February 2025.

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