Back حور عين Arabic Хур ҡыҙҙары Bashkir Хурии Bulgarian হুর Bengali/Bangla حۆری CKB Houri Danish Huri German Hurio Esperanto Hurí Spanish حوری Persian
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In Islam, a houri (English plural houris, /ˈhʊəriz/; from Arabic: حُـورِيَّـة ,حُورِيّ, romanized: ḥūriyy, ḥūrīya),[Note 1] is a maiden woman with beautiful eyes who is described as a reward for the faithful Muslim men in paradise.[2]
They are described to be of equal age with 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,[1] where the houris are mentioned indirectly several other times, (sometimes as azwāj, lit. companions), and hadith provide a "great deal of later elaboration".[1] 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.[3]
Houris have been said to have "captured the imagination of Muslims and non-Muslims alike".[1] In jihadist ideology, individuals who engage in "martyrdom operations" — in Western terms, suicide attacks — are incentivized with the promise of companionship with houris, whom they can take as wives.[4]
- ^ a b c d Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.164
- ^ "Houri". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Seyyed Hossein Nasr; Caner K. Dagli; Maria Massi Dakake; Joseph E.B. Lumbard; Mohammed Rustom, eds. (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. New York, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-112586-7.
- ^ Romero, Juan (2022). "Rules of jihad". Terrorism: the Power and Weakness of Fear. Routledge Studies in Modern History. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-032-19806-4.
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