Houri

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

• 36:55[5] "Companions",[6]
• 37:48[7] "with large and beautiful eyes",[8]
• 38:52[9] "companions of modest gaze well matched (at thirty-three years of age according to some commentators)"[10]
• 44:54[11] " wide and beautiful eyes",[12]
• 52:20[13] "beautiful houris of wide and beautiful eyes",[14]
• 55:56[15][16][17] "untouched beforehand by man or jinn,",[18] 55:58 "as elegant as rubies and coral",[19] 55:72[20] "bright-eyed damsels in sheltered in pavilions",[21] 55:74[22] "untouched by any man",[23] "reclining on green cushions and beautiful carpets",[24]
• 56:8[25][26][27] 56:22[28] "with intensely black eyes set against the whiteness of their irises",[29] 56:35[30] "created without the process of birth",[31]
• 78:31-33[32][33] and as "splendid companions".[34]

Several translators—like Arberry, Palmer, Rodwell and Sale—have translated the noun ka'ib in Quran 78:33 as "with swelling breasts".[35] Ibn Kathir, in his tafsir, writes that the word 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."[36] 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."[37]

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.[38][39]

Others, such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali, translate ka'ib as "companions,"[40] with Muhammad Asad interpreting the term as being allegorical.[41]

In the Hadith, Houris have been described as "transparent to the marrow of their bones",[42][43] "eternally young",[44] "hairless except the eyebrows and the head",[44] "pure"[43] and "beautiful".[43] Sunni hadith scholars also relate a number of sayings of the 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."[45]

• 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 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.[46]

• 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.[47]

• 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."[48][49][50]

The Sunni hadith scholar Tirmidhi quotes the prophet 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 San'a.[51][52]

However, others object that the narration granting all men seventy-two wives has a weak chain of narrators."[53]

Another hadith, also in Jami` 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.[54]

In the Quran, there is no overt mention of sexual intercourse in Paradise.[38] However, its existence has been reported in hadiths, tafsirs[55][56] and Islamic commentaries.[57][58][59][60]

Sunni sources mention that like all men and women of Paradise, the houris do not experience urination, defecation or menstruation.[61]

Ibn Kathir states that jinns will have female jinn companions in Paradise.[62]

Al-Qurtubi reconciled a hadith that stated that the majority of the inhabitants of Hell (Jahannam) would be women by suggesting that many of the women that will form the majority in Hell will be among the sinners that would stay there merely temporarily and would then be brought out of Hell into Paradise; thereafter the majority of the people of Paradise would be women.[63]

Regarding the eschatological status of this-worldly women vis-à-vis the houris, scholars have maintained that righteous women of this life are of a higher station than the houris.[2] 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 maidens (ḥūr ʿīn)."[76] Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar Baḥraq (d.1524) mentions in his didactic primer for children that "Adamic women are better than the dark-eyed maidens due to their prayer, fasting, and devotions." [77]

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."[78][79] 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.[80]

Some argue that while the term "houri" may refer to female companions, "this does not necessarily preclude the existence of handsome male companions for female believers."[81]

The absence of mention of particular companions for women has been attributed to the societal context of pre-Islamic Arabia, where references to female sexuality were considered to be inappropriate.[82][83]