The verses in the Quran about the “hoor” (or “houris”) awaiting the dwellers of Paradise are a major point of contention among modern scholars. In contrast to the traditional translations that claim they are virgin girls promised to men, the recent understanding tries to define them in a gender-neutral way. We also agree that the hoor are not meant to be rewards for a specific gender, but they themselves are undeniably female beings, by the evidence of the female pronouns referring to them in Arabic. There is more than one interpretation of this issue. Below is a discussion of all relevant verses.
VERSES RELEVANT TO THE HOOR
Sad 38:52
“Alongside them will be female beings (hoor), all of the same age, who focus their gaze on them.”
Saffat 37:48-49
“Alongside them will be wide-eyed female beings (hoor) who focus their gaze on them. They are as if they were hidden eggs (radiant, with pure white-skin).”
Duhan 44:54
“Thus, we will bring wide-eyed hoor close to them (for service).”
Toor 52:20
“Reclining upon ranged settees… And we will bring wide-eyed hoor close to them (for service).”
Rahman 55:56
“Therein are female beings who focus their gaze (on those they serve). No human or jinn has contacted them before those (they serve).”
Rahman 55:72,74
“Hoor that are sheltered in tents.”
“No human or jinn has contacted them (those female beings: the hoor) before (the people of Paradise).”
Waqia 56:17-23
“Immortalized male servants (wildan) will circulate among them (the people close to Allah), with pitchers, ewers, and cups filled from a flowing spring… Neither will their heads ache from what they drink, nor will they be intoxicated. Those (servants) will also move about with the fruits preferred by the people of Paradise and the bird meat they desire. And there will be wide-eyed hoor (circulating), as if they were pearls hidden in their shells. (All of this is) to reward them for what they used to do.”
Waqia 56:35-37
“We have created them (those female beings: the hoor) of special creation. We made them first ones (of their kind), cheerful and pure of heart, agemates[1].”
Waqia 56:61
“This is to replace your structure with another one (without preventing your recognition) and to recreate you in a way you do not know.”
Insan 76:19
“Immortalized male servants (wildan) will circulate among them (the people of Paradise). When you see them, you will reckon they are scattered pearls.”
Naba’ 78:33
“Female beings of the same age who provide high-quality service…”
LIFE IN PARADISE
Humans and jinn are created to be tested (Dhariyat 51:56). Those who succeed in the test will reside in Paradise, purified of evil emotions, alongside suitable spouses and their righteous descendants (Ra’d 13:19-24, Tur 52:21-24). Those who never married, like Jesus (pbuh), or those whose spouses were disbelievers, like the wives of Noah and Lot (peace be upon them) and the wife of Pharaoh (Tahrim 66:10-11), or those who divorced, will also be given pure spouses (Al-e Imran 3:15, Nisa 4:57).
The Almighty God decrees:
“The people of Paradise will be busy rejoicing on that day. They and their spouses will be reclining on couches in the shade. There will be fruits for them and whatever they desire. And there will be the greeting of ‘Peace’ from a Most Merciful Lord.” (Yasin 36:55-58)
In the Hereafter, people will be created in a previously unknown form, and the faces of the believing men and women will radiate light. The Almighty God says:
“We have decreed death among you, and We are not to be outdone. (This is) so that We may change your forms and recreate you in a way you do not know.”* (Al-Waqi’ah 56:60-61)
“On the Day you will see the believing men and women with their light radiating before them and on their right. (It will be said to them:) ‘Today, your good news is of gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein you will abide eternally. That is the great success!'” (Al-Hadid 57:12)
According to these verses, the forms of the men and women who enter Paradise will change, and they will be of unimaginable beauty. There, they will find everything they desire and more (Nahl 16:31, Anbiya 21:102, Furqan 25:16, Zumar 39:34, Fussilat 41:31, Shura 42:22, Qaf 50:35). The verses describing the qualities of the Hoor assigned to serve them are another indication of the high honor bestowed upon the men and women of Paradise.
There will be male and female servants in Paradise. Female servants are called “hoor”, and male servants are called “wildan”.
These are among the rewards that the People of Paradise will receive. They consist of both believing men and believing women who used to refrain from doing wrong in worldly life.
WILDAN
Wildan are male servants who circulate among the people in Paradise carrying drinks and food. These wildān move gracefully like scattered pearls, carrying filled pitchers, ewers, goblets, assorted fruits, meats (including fowl), and ginger-infused drinks (Al-Insān 76:15-19).
HOOR AND THEIR ATTRIBUTES
Hoor, whose bodies are veiled like hidden pearls in their shells, are close attendants assigned to each person. They will not take their eyes off the people they serve (Saffat 37:48-49, Rahman 55:56, 72; Waqi′a 56:22-23). They will have a very high quality of service according to the expression “kawaeba atraba (كَوَاعِبَ أَتْرَابًا)” in Naba 78:33.
ATRAB
“Atraba (أَتْرَابًا)” are agemates. The hoor will have been created in Paradise as the first ones of their kind for the service of the People of Paradise. Therefore, they will all be the same age.
KAWAEB
In the Arabic language, anything high or rising is “ka′b (كَعْبٌ)”. A reputable and successful person is called “a person with high ka′b (رجلٌ عَالِي الكَعْب)” (Lisan′ul−Arab). The word “kawaeb (كَوَاعِبَ)” in verse 78:33 is the plural of “ka‘ib (كاعب)”, which means “having a high extent (of sth)”. What is expected from the hoor is “high-quality service”. The fact that they focus their eyes on the people they serve is a sign of the high-quality service provided by a close attendant (Sad 38/52, Rahman 55/56), as it signifies constant attention to the person.
WIVES OR CLOSE ATTENDANTS?
In traditional Islamic interpretations, the integrity of the relevant verses is ignored. Hoor, who are of a kind never before contacted by humans or jinn (Waqi′a 56/35-37, Rahman 55/56), have been assumed as “virgin girls”, and the word “kawaeb (كواعب)” has been given the meaning of “full-breasted”.
Due to the phrase “(وَزَوَّجْنَاهُم بِحُورٍعِينٍ) We would “make them zawj with wide-eyed hoor,” which appears in verses Toor 52:20 and Duhan 44:54, it is claimed that hoor will be given to men entering Paradise as concubines, but this claim is incorrect because, the people given hoor include both men and women, that is, all the people who refrain from doing wrong, according to the contexts beginning with verses Toor 52:17 and Duhan 44:51.
There are many details to consider to correctly understand the meaning of “zawwaja” in those verses.
THE MEANING OF THE NOUN “ZAWJ”
In Arabic, each person that is united around the same opinion (Waqi′a 56/7), the male and female of the same species of living beings, each shoe from a pair of shoes, and each of two things whose qualities are similar or opposite are called a “zawj”. The feminine word “zawja” is not used in classical Arabic.
THE MEANING OF THE VERB “ZAWWAJA”
The verb “zawwaja (زَوَّجَ)”, derived from the same root as “zawj”, carries different meanings depending on its grammatical construction. When it takes a single object, it means “to make something a pair” (Shura 42:49-50). When it takes two objects—with the second attached directly to the verb—it means “to marry off” (Ahzab 33:37). However, if the second object is introduced via a preposition (harf jarr), the verb conveys the meaning of “bringing something very close” (Mufradat).
Consequently, the phrase “We would make them zawj with wide-eyed hoor” (as found in verses Toor 52:20 and Duhan 44:54) should be understood as hoor being made into close attendants. This interpretation is further reinforced by etymology.
ETYMOLOGY OF “HOOR”
The word hoor derives from masdar “hawr (حَوْر)”, which denotes “moving away from and returning to something” (Lisān al-ʿArab). The English word *hover*, which sounds similar, means “to keep lingering about; to wait near at hand.” That is what hoor do. They wait in a proximate, servile position to those they attend (Sād 38:52), retrieving and delivering what they request from the wildān (male servants) who circulate among the people of the Paradise. So, they are close attendants assigned to each person in Paradise. They remain attentively close to those they serve to fulfil their requests, never straying far.
VIRGINS OR FIRST ONES OF A KIND?
One of the false claims about hoor is that they will be virgin wives or concubines of the men in Paradise. The following verses allegedly support this claim:
Waqia 56:34
وَفُرُشٍ مَرْفُوعَةٍۜ
(the dwellers of Paradise will be) on elevated couches.
Waqia 56:35
اِنَّٓا اَنْشَأْنَاهُنَّ اِنْشَٓاءًۙ
“We have created them (those female beings: the hoor) of special creation.”
The pronoun ‘hunna (هن) – them’ refers to plural female beings, to which we attribute the meaning ‘hoor’ in verse 56:35. Some traditional commentaries and translations assign the meaning ‘the wives of the dwellers of Paradise’ to that pronoun. This stems from interpreting the phrase ‘wa furushin marfooatin (وَفُرُشٍ مَّرْفُوعَةٍ) – they will be on elevated couches’ in verse 56:34 as ‘we will give them most precious spouses’. This interpretation, however, is contrary to the Arabic language rules:
The expression in verse 34 is the last in a series of adverbial phrases of place that begin with verse 56:27, where the preposition ‘fī (في) – in’ clearly indicates a location. All the verses between 56:27 and 56:34 consist of descriptions of places where the people of Paradise who are given their records in their right hands, will reside. None of these verses include an additional preposition, which means that they are all connected to verse 56:27:
“lote-trees; banana-trees; extended shades; outpouring water (sources); unending, unrestricted, abundant fruits; elevated coaches”
FURUSHIN MARFOOATIN
To assign the meaning ‘we will give them most precious spouses’ to the verse, it would be necessary to treat the adverbial words as objects (maf’ul), which is impossible from the perspective of the Arabic language. Moreover, the word ‘furush (فُرُش),’ to which the commentators attribute the meaning ‘wives /spouses,’ is used in verse 54 of Surah Ar-Rahman to mean ‘the couches on which the dwellers of Paradise recline,’ and no one has ever assigned it a meaning other than ‘couches.’
In verse 56:34 as well, the word ‘furush’ carries the same meaning. Three verses after this, the statement: ‘These are for those given their records in their right hands’ (Al-Waqi’a 56:38) is repeated. So, verse 56:35 is not connected to 56:34.
Considering the sentence “We have created them (the hoor) of special creation.” it is clear from the Arabic point of view that the only possible referent for the pronoun “hunna (them)” in 56:35 is the hoor mentioned in Al-Waqi’a 56:22 because that pronoun is used for female beings in Arabic, and the only female being mentioned before 56:35 is the hoor in 56:22. That means, the hoor will be of a new and special creation.
THE MEANING OF “ABKAR”
Waqia 56:36
فَجَعَلْنَاهُنَّ اَبْكَارًاۙ
“We made them (the female beings) first ones (of their kind),”
The word rendered as ‘first ones’ is ‘(أبكار) abkar,’ the plural of ‘(بكر) bikr.’ The root meaning of ‘bikr’ is to be the first and origin of something (Makayis al-Lugha).
This word is also used for virgin females.
Commentaries and translations have given the verse ‘(فَجَعَلْنَاهُنَّ أَبْكَارًا)’ the meaning ‘we made them virgins’ instead of ‘we made them first ones.’ This interpretation is rooted in the misbelief that men can have concubines out of wedlock, besides their married wives, even in this world, thus allowing them to have countless virgin concubines in Paradise. However, the notion that men may keep concubines outside marriage is entirely baseless[2], so the assumption that hoor are virgin concubine girls other than wives is also imaginary. Hoor are female beings who are of a kind to be encountered by humans and jinn for the first time in Paradise (Ar-Rahman 55:56, 72-74). Their bodies, veiled like pearls in shells, signify that they are not objects of beauty or sexual desire. They will be assigned to both men and women in Paradise, and will not be similar to the girls of this world.
Waqia 56:37
عُرُبًا اَتْرَابًاۙ
“cheerful and pure of heart, agemates.”
SPOUSES IN PARADISE
Men and women who deserve the Paradise will not be alone there. Considering the facts that some people never married in this world, some men or women married more than once, some divorced, spouses of some will not deserve the jannah,etc. we can have the insight that the people of Paradise may have but are not bound to have their worldly spouses in the afterlife. They will all be created anew in immortal bodies, and purified by God according to the verse below:
Baqarah 2:25
“Give glad tidings to those who believe and perform righteous deeds: there are gardens for them in which rivers flow. Every time they are provided with a produce from there, they say: “This is what we were provided with before”, but they are given something similar. They will have purified spouses and will be immortal therein.”
The purification mentioned in the verse is not about cleanliness only but about having perfectly pure hearts with no jealousy, no hatred, and no bad feelings. We learn this from the verse below:
Hijr 15:47
“We will remove from their hearts all ill feelings; they will be brethren, lounging on couches, facing one another.”
CONCLUSION
Considering that all ill-feelings, which may also include lust and envy, will be removed and the dwellers of Paradise will already have purified spouses, there is no need for virgin concubines as a reward in Paradise. However, close attendants with a high quality of service and full attention on both male and female dwellers of Paradise are coherent with the rest of the rewards promised to the people of Paradise.
[1] The word translated as “cheerful and pure of heart” is ‘urub’ (عرب), which is the plural of ‘aroob’ (عروب).
[2] Please read the following article about slavery and concubinage: https://www.islamandquran.org/common-mistakes/battle-captives-and-concubinage.html
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