Virgins and Martyrdom

It's been long established that the heavenly rewards for martyrdom include 72 virgins, those saucy exploding Arabs.

From an article in The Guardian:

Penguin translation by NJ Dawood of sura 56 verses 12- 39:

"They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine (that will neither pain their heads nor take away their reason); with fruits of their own choice and flesh of fowls that they relish. And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls: a guerdon for their deeds... We created the houris and made them virgins, loving companions for those on the right hand..."

Furthermore:
Ibn Kathir (died 1373 CE ) in his Koranic commentary (Tafsir) of Surah Al-Rahman (55), verse 72:

Muhammad was heard saying: 'The smallest reward for the people of paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a [Yemen]'."

However, there's scholarly suggestion " many obscurities of the Koran disappear if we read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic"

For example,

In Syriac, the word hur is a feminine plural adjective meaning white, with the word "raisin" understood implicitly. Similarly, the immortal, pearl-like ephebes or youths of suras such as LXXVI.19 are really a misreading of a Syriac expression meaning chilled raisins (or drinks) that the just will have the pleasure of tasting in contrast to the boiling drinks promised the unfaithful and damned.

So whilst people like Jenny Tonge might be tempted into suicide bombings for the reward of 72 virgins, one can only imagine the disappointment of receiving 72 raisins, ex-poste.

Comments

[wyska]

Surely they're only virgins for as long as it takes you to 'ahem' and then the novelty wears off.

[ar]

It's ironic you take the Quran from it's Arabic meaning and instead try to look for alternatives in Syriac, without having much (if any) knowledge of the Arabic language at all. So taking the word "Hur" out of context of it's entirety "Hur al 'ayn" has led to these distorted interpretations you claim. Hur is the plural of the fem. Howra which literally refers to the whiteness of the eyeball and blackness of the pupil. Together will the latter 'ayn, fem. 'ayno, which means eyes, the most appropriate translation (since English cannot fully translate Arabic to gives it's full emphasis), would most certainly not indicate raisins, but rather individuals pure with most beautiful of eye.

[AJE]

thankyou, yet i can't see the irony.... oh: eye-rony, i get it.

[Cary Cook]

If Allah is good, He is good to everyone who deserves good. If He gives one man 72 virgins, He is surely good to that man, but how can he be good to the 72 virgins who must share one man? If Allah is not good, what are the chances that He will reward anyone with anything?