Houri

File:Houris on Camelback - 15th century Persia.png

Houris in paradise, riding camels. From a 15th-century Persian manuscript.

Template:Islam In Islam, a houri (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> Template:Langx),<ref group="Note">{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is also transliterated as Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. adjectival and feminine singular formation from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, plural of aḥwar {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or ḥawrā’ {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} the complete name, al-ḥur al-ʿayn Template:Langx "literally means having eyes with marked contrast of black and white"<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1642" /></ref> or houris or hoor al ayn in plural form, is a maiden woman with beautiful eyes who lives alongside the Muslim faithful in paradise.<ref>"Houri" Template:Webarchive. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

They are described as the same age as the men in paradise. Since hadith states people will be aged 30–33 lunar years in heaven, this translates to 29–32 Gregorian solar years.

The term "houris" is used four times in the Quran,<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1642">Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.164</ref> although the houris are mentioned indirectly several other times, (sometimes as azwāj, lit. companions), and hadith provide a "great deal of later elaboration".<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1642" /> 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.<ref name="Study Quran,2">Template:Cite book</ref>

Houris have been said to have "captured the imagination of Muslims and non-Muslims alike".<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1642" /> According to hadith, faithful women of the Dunya will be superior to houris in paradise.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Etymology

In classical Arabic usage, the word Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx) is the plural of both Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx) (masculine) and Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx) (feminine)<ref>see Lane's Lexicon, p. 666 and Hans Wehr, p. 247</ref> which can be translated as "having eyes with an intense contrast of white and black".<ref>Wehr's Arabic-English Dictionary, 1960.</ref>

The word "houri" entered several European languages in the 17th and 18th centuries.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Arthur Jeffery and other scholars suggests an Iranian origin for the term, proposing the origins of the word to be the Middle Persian hū̆rust Template:'well grownTemplate:'.<ref name=":02">Template:Citation</ref>

Descriptions

The houris are mentioned in several passages of the Quran, always in plural form, but only mentioned directly four times. 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:

• 37:48<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "with large and beautiful eyes",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 38:52<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "companions of modest gaze well matched",<ref name="altafsir12">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 44:54<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "wide and beautiful eyes",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 52:20<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "beautiful houris of wide and beautiful eyes",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 55:56<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "untouched beforehand by man or jinn",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 55:58 "as elegant as rubies and coral",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 55:72<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "bright-eyed damsels sheltered in pavilions",<ref name="Tafsir Ar-Rahman2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 55:74<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "untouched by any man",<ref name="Tafsir Ar-Rahman2" /> "reclining on green cushions and beautiful carpets",<ref name="Tafsir Ar-Rahman2" />

• 56:8<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "the people of the right, how ˹blessed˺ will they be"<ref name="Al-Waqi'ah quran.com2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 56:22<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and they will have "houris, maidens with intensely black eyes set against the whiteness of their irises",<ref name="Tafsir Al-Waqi'a2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 56:35<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> "created without the process of birth",<ref name="Tafsir Al-Waqi'a2" />

• 78:31–33<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and as "splendid companions",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 44:54 "Thus. And We will marry them to fair women with large, [beautiful] eyes".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It is thought that the four verses specifically mentioning Houri were all "probably" 'revealed' at "the end of the first Meccan period".<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1652">Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.165</ref>

Hadith description

Details of descriptions of houri (or ḥūr), in hadith collections differ, but one summary (by Smith & Haddad) states:<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1642" />

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.<ref>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</ref> 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.<ref>La Vie Future selon le Coran, p.39. quoted in Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.164</ref>

In hadith, Houris have been described as "transparent to the marrow of their bones",<ref name="Sunan_al-Tirmidhi_v22">Abu Template:AyinIsa Muhammad ibn Template:AyinIsa at-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Vol. 2.</ref><ref name="Bukhari_4762">Template:Hadith-usc</ref> "eternally young",<ref name="Sunan_al-Tirmidhi_56382">Abu Template:AyinIsa Muhammad ibn Template:AyinIsa at-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, hadith: 5638</ref> "hairless except the eyebrows and the head",<ref name="Sunan_al-Tirmidhi_56382" /> "pure"<ref name="Bukhari_4762" /> and "beautiful".<ref name="Bukhari_4762" /> 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.<ref>Template:Hadith-usc</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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

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• 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.Template:'"<ref>Shamaa-il Tirmidhi, Chapter 035, Hadith Number 006 (230)</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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• 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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Characteristics

Meaning of the term kawa'ib

Verse Q.78:33 describes Houri with the noun ka'ib, translated as "with swelling breasts"<ref>Template:Cite quran</ref> by several translators—like Arberry, Palmer, Rodwell and Sale (it is also translated as "buxom" or "full bosomed").<ref name="IslamAwake-78:332">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At least two Islamic Fatwa sites (islamweb.net and islamqa.info) have attacked the use of these translations by those who "criticize the Quran",<ref name="islamweb-78:332">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or who "seek to make Islam appear to be a religion of sex and desire".<ref name="breasts-IslamQA2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref>كعب in Lane's lexicon.</ref><ref group="Note">islamweb.net states: "{Kawaa‘ib} means round-breasted";<ref name="islamweb-78:33">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and islamqa.info translates Q.78:33 as “And young full-breasted (mature) maidens of equal age”<ref name="breasts-IslamQA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref></ref>

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.<ref name="Heleem2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Others, such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali, translate ka'ib as "companions",<ref>Abdullah Yusuf Ali: The Meanings of the Illustrious Qur'an, Alminar Books, Houston, TX, 1997</ref> with Muhammad Asad interpreting the term as being allegorical.<ref>Template:Cite book "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'."</ref>

Reference to "72 virgins"

Template:Further 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 San'a.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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However, others object that the narration granting all men seventy-two wives has a weak chain of narrators.<ref name="Salahuddin Yusuf2">Salahuddin Yusuf, Riyadhus Salihin, commentary on Nawawi, Chapter 372, Dar-us-Salam Publications (1999), Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN</ref>

Another hadith, also in JamiTemplate:Ayin 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. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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This hadith is sometimes erroneously attributed to the Quran.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Urbanterrorism2">Template:Cite book</ref>

Sexual intercourse in Paradise

In the Quran, there is no overt mention of sexual intercourse in Paradise.<ref name="Heleem2" /> However, it is alluded to in hadiths, tafsirs<ref name="Tafsir Ibn Kathir - The Reward of Those on the Right After2">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, Template:ISBN</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Islamic commentaries.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Houri, age

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 (Template:Langx) in Q.56:37).<ref name="quran4you2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="altafsir12" />

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".<ref name="Abdel Haleem-UtQ-19992">Template:Cite book</ref> 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";<ref name="Al-Hoor-al-Hayn2">Template:Cite book</ref> (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,<ref group="Note">

• "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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> </ref> so that the heavenly virgins have no birthday or age in the earthly sense.Template:Citation needed

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";<ref name="islamqa.info-1934092">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and that she is of the age of "young girls when their breasts are beginning to appear".<ref name="Heleem2" /> At least one person (M Faroof Malik) translates Template:Langx in verse Q.55:56 as "bashful virgins".<ref name="I.A.-55:562">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Quranic commentators

Sunni sources mention that like all men and women of Paradise, the houris do not experience urination, defecation or menstruation.<ref name="Religious_Sciences2">Al Ghazzali, Ihya ʿUlum al-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) Vol. 4</ref>

Ibn Kathir states that jinns will have female jinn companions in Paradise.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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".<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:167-82">Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.167-8</ref>

Imam Reza

According to 8th Shia Imam, Imam Reza, the heavenly spouses are created of dirt (Creation of life from clay) and saffron.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Gender and identity

It has traditionally been believed that the houris are beautiful women who are promised as a reward to believing men,<ref name="dawn-houri-202">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with numerous hadith and Quranic exegetes describing them as such.<ref name="iqa-intercourse2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="dawn-houri-202" />

The Quran uses feminine as well as gender-neutral adjectives to describe houris,<ref name="auto2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> by describing them with the indefinite adjective {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which some have taken to imply that certain passages are referring to both male and female companions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> <ref group="Note">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.</ref>

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'."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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".<ref>Annemarie Schimmel, Islam: An Introduction, p. 13, "Muhammad"</ref>

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.<ref name="Study Quran,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)."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Right After2">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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).<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1662">Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.166</ref>

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".<ref name="JISYYHIU1981:1652" />

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<ref>Template:Cite quran</ref> and a hadith found in Bukhari and Muslim.<ref>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.). "</ref>

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.<ref name="Tafsir Almizan2">Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, Tafsir al-Mizan</ref>

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.<ref name="iWWINaM1995:472">Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, 1995: p.47</ref> 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,<ref>The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʼān . BRILL. 2007. Template:ISBN. Archived from the original on 2023-08-30.</ref>

Controversy

A girl was controversially arrested on her question on allusion of Houris.

See also

• Apsara
• Garden of Eden
• Jannah
• Maid of Heaven (Bahá'í faith)
• Peri
• Women in Islam

References

Notes

<references group="Note"></references>

Citations

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Bibliography

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