Paradise in the Qur’an

Last updated on: January 5, 2018 at 1:09 pm by Dan Peterson

Paradise in the Qur’an 2018-01-05T13:09:38-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Dante og Beatrice i Paradis” [Poul S. Christiansen (1894); public domain via Wikimedia CC]

Another passage from my current manuscript-most-in-progress:

Even more detailed than the Qur’an’s portrayal of hell is its depiction of paradise. It is a picture that has inspired much derision among Westerners—most of it quite ignorant and beside the point.

The Qur’anic paradise is a garden, a place of darkest green, filled with palms and pomegranates and running streams. A shady region “as vast as heaven and earth,” it suffers from neither scorching heat nor biting cold. It is a very different place from the hell sketched above.

The saved are radiant. They recline on couches, clothed in garments of fine green silk and rich brocade, with bracelets of silver and gold on their arms. Luscious fruit hangs in clusters above and about them, and beneath them rich carpets are spread. Their lofty mansions provide them a view of the sufferings of the damned in hell, far below them. No idle talk is heard in paradise, but rather reflections upon the goodness of God and upon their lives and the lives of the damned in mortality. Meanwhile, their attendants, young boys whose beauty resembles that of scattered pearls, scurry about with vessels of silver and gold and goblets of crystal, serving to the righteous pure drink from a paradisiacal fountain, a pure wine that neither intoxicates nor gives a hangover.[1]

No aspect of the Qur’anic paradise has brought more leering comment than the so-called houris.[2] According to the Qur’an, these are maidens of bashful glance, dark-eyed and full-breasted. Their beauty resembles that of rubies and corals. Untouched by men, pure, cloistered in the pavilions of paradise where they remain “chaste like hidden pearls” or like “the sheltered eggs of ostriches,” they await the arrival of the blessed to the mansions prepared for them.[3] Are they fully human? Where do they come from? Are they righteous, believing women from the earth? The Qur’an does not say. But one of the great gifts bestowed by paradise upon the righteous is that God will marry them to these dark-eyed houris.[4]

This element of the Qur’anic paradise has, as I say, received much mockery in the West, and such criticism has often put educated Muslims on the defensive. Today and almost since the rise of Islam, there have been claims that these very tangible and material blessings are meant metaphorically. The point, according to many defenders of the Qur’an, is to illustrate even to simple believers that paradise contains “whatever the souls desire, and the eyes delight in.”[5] The metaphor should not, they insist, be taken as literal fact. Moreover, all these material symbols of the joy awaiting the righteous fail to convey adequately what bliss is really there. “No mortal knows,” the Qur’an declares, “what bliss is in store for [the righteous} as a reward for their labours.”[6] The real blessing of paradise, say the nonliteralists, is the blessing next to which all the trees and streams and nonintoxicating wines and houris dwindle into insignificance. In that place “the righteous shall dwell in gardens where rivers flow, honourably seated in the presence of a Mighty King.”[7] Being in the presence of God himself is the crown of all paradisiacal blessings. But one cannot leave the Qur’an’s very literal-sounding and graphic description of paradise without noting that Syriac Christian writings of a few centuries earlier contain almost precisely identical elements.

[1] Representative texts on the Qur’anic paradise include 2:25; 3:15, 133-36; 4:57; 13:35; 18:31; 19:62; 22:23; 29:58; 37:40-61; 43:70-73; 44:51-57; 52:17-28; 55:46-77; 56:15-38; 57:21; 76:5-6, 11-22; 77:41-44; 78:31-36; 83:22-28; 88:8-16; 98:7-8.

[2] The singular, houri, is pronounced something like “hoo-ree.”

[3] On them, see 2:25; 3:15; 4:57; 37:48-49; 38:52; 55:56, 58, 70, 72, 74; 56:22-23, 3538; 78:33.

[4] 2:25; 3:15; 4:57; 44:54; 52:20.

[5] 43:71.

[6] 32:17. Compare the similar claim made by the Apostle Paul at 1 Corinthians 2:9. Paul’s own words show up in later Islamic tradition as a statement made by the Prophet Muhammad.

[7] 54:54-55. Even here, the plain meaning of the Qur’anic text suggests the possibility of literally being in the presence of a God who has spatial location. Actually, though, the Qur’an contains verses which can easily be used against an anthropomorphic view of deity. For example, it says, “Nothing can be compared with Him.” (42:11.) The real question is how such verses are to be received.

***

And, while I’m at it, here’s a pleasant item that was kindly brought to my attention by Matthew Wheeler:

“Thousands of Muslims donate 10 tonnes of food to help homeless Londoners at Christmas: Thousands of people attended East London Mosque to donate and collect food supplies following Friday prayers”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 5, 2018

"The New York Times Proves It Hates Religious Americans With This Obituary"

Next Post

January 5, 2018 Thoughts from nearly fourteen years ago

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Romans teaches that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE