Are There Houris in the Jannah?

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 19 July 2023 Yes, And If Muslims Exegetes Are To Be Believed, Loads Of Them Main Points: 1. The movie 72 Hoories has generated controversy about the Muslim heaven 2. The presence of houris is attested by the Quran, Hadis and other commentaries 3. But there is no consensus on the number 72, some have gone further than that 4. It is beyond doubt that houris exist in heaven to satiate the sexual needs of Muslim men in heaven 5. If the scriptures themselves talk about it, then there is no reason why Muslims should feel offended when a movie is made on the subject. ------ The recently released film, 72 Hoorain was perhaps made to create a controversy. Thankfully the controversy did not escape the TV studios despite third rate Mullas telling the public that Islam actually promises 72 Houris to every male who enters paradise. In the specific context of the movie, two Muslim youth detonate themselves, thereby becoming martyrs, and are shown to wait in the purgatory before being allowed in heaven. Now this is not the first movie which links martyrdom to the lure of 72 houris. Another film, Paradise Now, made in 2005, showed two young Palestinian men similarly motivated to become suicide bombers. Sociologically, the motivations for suicide bombing are complex, but the religious motivation behind the act should not be undermined. So, what do the Islamic texts actually say about Jannah/Islamic heaven. Will it really be filled with 72 Houris? The Muslim belief is that the Quran is the literal word of Allah. The Quran does mention Houris at multiple places but nowhere does it tell us about their exact number. “Indeed, the righteous will have salvation…Gardens, vineyards…And full bosomed maidens of equal age… And full cups of pure wine”, says the Quran (78:31-34). Some translations of the Quran replace “full blossomed maidens” with “companions”. However, when the Quran talks about Houris, the sexual connotation cannot be missed. Take for example Quran 55:56, that talks of “maidens of modest gaze, who no human or jinn has touched before” and further reiterates it in 55:72 that they will be “maidens with gorgeous eyes, reserved in pavilions. Again in 55:74, the Quran reminds the believers that “no human or jinn has ever touched these maidens before”. The sexual element becomes apparent by words like “full breasted” and maidens/ Houris/virgin. If there was no sexual connotation, then why would the Quran say that these Houris have never been touched before either by men or jinn? While Muslim apologetics might want to gloss over such verses, the traditional scholars of Islam had no issue whatsoever in admitting that the believers in heaven will be granted sexual pleasures. Ibn Kathir, in his Tafsir explains the verse 78:33 as “wide eyed maidens with fully developed breasts”. He further dwells on the quality of breasts of these houris: “This means round breasts. They meant by this that the breasts of these girls will be fully rounded and not sagging”. He continues: “It is because they are virgins and will never age”. Explaining 55:56, he states: “It means that there will be delightful virgins of comparable age who never had sexual intercourse with anyone, whether from mankind or Jinns, before their husbands.” Explaining Houris in verse 56:36, Tafsir al Jalalayn says, “And made them virgins, immaculate-every time their spouses enter them, they find them virgins, nor is there any pain [of defloration]”. The author of Jalalayn also explains verse 36:55 to mean that those in paradise will be “busy delighting in pleasures such as deflowering virgins” as compared to the inhabitants of fire/hell who will be suffering. But the more audacious flight of fancy comes to us through the various collections of Hadis where the matter is discussed threadbare. Sunna ibn Majah mentions that Allah will marry all those who are admitted to paradise with 72 wives- two from the Houris and seventy from his inheritance from the people of hell, all of whom will have desirable vaginas and he will have a penis which will never become flaccid. Here we have a mention of 72 women, but unfortunately, they will not all be Houris! Tirmizi, in his collection of Hadis, mentions that a man in paradise will be married to 72 Houris. He also mentions that each such man will be given the strength of hundred men. Obviously, the purpose was to engage in coitus for as long as the men wanted! Bukhari, in his collection, mentions that all those who enter paradise “will have two wives from the Houris, ….. the marrow of the bones of their legs will be seen through the bones and the flesh”. At another place Bukhari records that these Houris will all look alike and will be 60 cubits or 27 meters tall! If the Hadis are so explicit, the why should our reverential scholars be far behind? It appears that al Ghazali thought a lot about such matters. In his Ihya Ulum al Din, he says that Houris will be “pure women- free of menstruation, stool, urine, saliva, cough, female ejaculation and children.” Further, these “Houris will sing- we are most beautiful houris and we are concealed for honoured husbands.” As to their numbers, Ghazali lets his imagination run wild: “An inmate of paradise will have 500 houris, 4000 virgins, and 8000 widowed women. He will keep embracing each of them for the duration of his worldly life.” When an Alim like Tariq Jameel tells his congregation about what awaits them in Jannah, he is not making it up. Rather he is only regurgitating what is written in scriptures and commentaries. Why then should Muslims take offence when a movie is being made on the subject? Of course, the movie has its own agenda and in the current climate of anti-Muslim bigotry, the movie will receive major traction. But Muslims need to ask what are they upset about? Is it because a Hindu has made this movie? If not, then why are they not upset with the likes of Tariq Jameel who openly talk about the same things in his speeches? Most morality is historically contingent. The morality of the writers of Islamic scriptures was very different from what Muslims hold today. Most Muslims today do not defend slavery or marriage with pre-pubescent girls, institutions with which traditional Muslim exegetes never had a problem. Similarly, most Muslims today will find it hard to believe what their scholars have written about the Jannah. Shouldn’t then Muslims come together, evolve a consensus and edit out such scriptures which have become a matter of embarrassment to them? If Muslims are embarrassed about what their own books have to say about houris, the only solution is to remove the source of that embarrassment. ----- A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia. URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/houris-jannah/d/130252 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism