Houri


Houris are women who will accompany faithful believers in Paradise. 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.

Etymology

In classical Arabic usage, the word ḥūr is the plural of both ʾaḥwar and ḥawrāʾ which can be translated as "having eyes with an intense contrast of white and black."
The word "houri" has entered several European languages from around the 17th and 18th centuries, with the first recorded English usage being in 1737. It is also used in English to refer more broadly to "a voluptuously beautiful young woman."

Descriptions

The houris are mentioned in several passages of the Quran, always in plural form. No specific number is ever given in the Quran for the number of houris accompanying each believer.

Quranic description

In the tafsirs and commentaries on the Quran, Houris are described as:
Several translators—like Arberry, Palmer, Rodwell and Sale—have translated the noun ka'ib in Quran 78:33 as "with swelling breasts". 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." 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."
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.
Others, such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali, translate ka'ib as "companions," with Muhammad Asad interpreting the term as being allegorical.

Hadith description

Houris have been described as "transparent to the marrow of their bones", "eternally young", "hairless except the eyebrows and the head", "pure" and "beautiful". Sunni hadith scholars also relate a number of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad in which the houris are mentioned.
In the Quran, there is no overt mention of sexual intercourse in Paradise. However, its existence has been reported in hadiths, tafsirs and Islamic commentaries saying that Houris will have sexual intercourse with faithful men in Paradise.

Quranic commentators

sources mention that like all men and women of Paradise, the houris do not experience urination, defecation or menstruation.
Ibn Kathir states that jinns will have female jinn companions in Paradise.
Al-Qurtubi reconciled a hadith that stated that the majority of the inhabitants of Hell 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.

Gender and identity

It has traditionally been believed that the houris are beautiful women who are promised as a reward to believing men, with numerous hadith and Quranic exegetes describing them as such.
Others, however, argue that the term ḥūr refers both to pure men and pure women and the belief that the term houris only refers to females who are in paradise is a misconception.
The Quran uses feminine as well as gender-neutral adjectives to describe houris, 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. 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.
In The Message of The Qur'an, Muhammad Asad describes the usage of the term ḥūr in the verses 44:54 & 56:22, arguing that "the noun ḥūr—rendered by me as "companions pure"—is a plural of both aḥwār and ḥawrā'... hence, the compound expression ḥūr ʿīn signifies, approximately, 'pure beings, most beautiful of eye.'"

Relation to earthly women

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. Sunni theologian Aḥmad al-Ṣāwī, 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." Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar Baḥraq mentions in his didactic primer for children that "Adamic women are better than the dark-eyed maidens due to their prayer, fasting, and devotions."
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 " those toothless old women of yours whom God will resurrect as new beings."
Ibn Kathir mentions Muhammad as saying that if his wife was righteous, then she will be his wife in Paradise too. He also highlights that women "in the other life, after they became old in this life, were brought back while virgin, youthful, being delightfully passionate with their husbands, beautiful, kind and cheerful." 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.

Female equivalents

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."
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.

Symbolism

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

Controversy

Nerina Rustjomi has argued that the misuse of the term "houri" by terrorists has led Americans to have a skewed perception of the term and depict Islam as "a religion which is characterized by sensuality, violence, and irrationality."
Alternatively, 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..."