Quora Answer: Do Women in Paradise Share Their Husbands with 72 Virgins?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Men in Paradise receive 72 virgins.  Does this mean that women in Paradise will have to share their husbands with the 72 virgins?” 

There are several narrations that mention the 72 hur al-‘ayn, often translated, implistically, and inaccurately, as the maidens of Paradise. 

For example, it is recorded in Jami’ at-Tirmidzi, of Imam Abu ‘Isa Muhammad ibn ‘Isa as-Sulami at-Tirmidzi (r.a.), that Sayyidina Abu Sa’id Sa’id ibn Malik Sinan al-Khudri (r.a.) reported that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are eighty thousand servants, and seventy-two houris, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from al-Jabiyyah to Sana’a.”  This narration is considered dha’if, weak, or mawdhu’, rejected, depending on the muhhadits, scholar of prophetic narrations. 

Also recorded in Jami’ at-Tirmidzi, Sayyidina Abu Karimah al-Miqdam ibn Ma’di Karib (r.a.) reported that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “There are six things with Allah (s.w.t.) for the martyr.  He is Forgiven with the first flow of blood, 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 hur al-‘ayn of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives.”  This hadits, narration, is more credible, in terms of the chains, and is graded hasan, good. 

The thing about narrations, regardless of their grading, is that they should not be taken literally.  Arabic is a poetic language, replete with rhetorical devices.  The numbers 7 and 40 have special significance in Arabic literature, and that is why they appear so often in the Qur’an, in the ahadits, and in the literature of the time.  When they say 7, 70, 70,000 or something along those lines, it is meant to signify expansiveness, immensity or something beyond mortal comprehension.  It may also refer to thoroughness, such as washing seven times, or it may refer to something immense in value. 

Assuming we accept these narrations, and that is discounting the fact that many scholars do not, we could say, at best, that when 70 and 1, or 70 and 2, and so forth are mentioned, it means beyond generosity, or beyond comprehension.  It is a literary device.  An example would be the hadits on the 73 sects, which references the 71 sects of Judaism, the 72 sects of Christianity, followed by the 73 sects of Islam.  It does not mean that there are these exact numbers of sects.  The narration is to emphasise, that just like Judaism and Christianity before it, Islam would split into many different groups. 

Coming back to these narrations, it would be demeaning to imagine, as Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi (q.s.) so eloquently put, “You say two houris await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?”  These narrations are metaphorical and allegorical.  The Prophet (s.a.w.) was trying to convey something immense to simple tribesmen. 

This is what we do know, based on the narration of Sayyidina Abu Hurayrah ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sakhr ad-Dawsi az-Zahrani al-Azdi (r.a.), who reported that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “Allah Says, ‘I have Prepared for My pious slaves things which have never been seen by an eye, or heard by an ear, or imagined by a human being.’  If you wish, you can recite this verse from the Qur’an: ‘No soul knows what is kept hidden for them, of joy as a Reward for what they used to do.’” 

This hadits qudsi cites this verse, in the Qur’an: 

سُوۡرَةُ السَّجدَة

فَلَا تَعۡلَمُ نَفۡسٌ۬ مَّآ أُخۡفِىَ لَهُم مِّن قُرَّةِ أَعۡيُنٍ۬ جَزَآءَۢ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَعۡمَلُونَ (١٧) 

Now no person knows what delights of the eye are kept hidden (in reserve) for them as a Reward for their (good) deeds. (Surah as-Sajdah:17) 

This, and similar ahadits, are of the highest or second highest grade of swahih, being either muttafaq ‘alayh, or akhraju’ ash-Shaykhan, being found in both Swahih al-Bukhari, and Swahih Muslim. 

We know that a narration cannot contradict the Qur’an, since the Qur’an is wahy, Revelation, whereas a hadits is a mere snapshot of a moment.  Based on this, we can safely discard the literal interpretation of any narration that goes into explicit detail of Paradise as some sort of sexual orgy, or of the women being sexual objects.  I would even go so far as to discard them in their entirety.  At the very least, they were for a simplistic, carnal audience.  In all likelihood, they were later embellishments due to noted weaknesses in the chains of transmission, a form of pious pornography.