A MAJOR CONTROVERSY has erupted in Egypt following the denial by a preacher named Khālid al-Jundī, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, of any idea of having sex in Paradise at all, in an episode of his programme Perchance They May Understand. Al-Jundī stated that:

states of sexual emission will end, there will be no begetting of children, sexual organs will be no more since their function will be compensated by another. There is no sexual activity in Paradise in the way that we know it, Heaven is above all such mundanities.

I will not discuss here the views of the Companions, the Followers, the fuqahā’ and imams since they all largely share views in common – namely the virtues, qualities and amazing descriptions of the ḥūr al-‘ayn – and this is their habit. If there are any differences of view, they are merely formal differences, not essential ones. They write simply what they are good at, writing down what the imagination of adherents of Islam believe, and at the same time keeping close to the approach taken by Muḥammad.

But I should pause here with regard to the Divine Being. For example, in the Qur’ānic verse 

Lo! those who merit paradise this day are happily employed^[1]

and how it is interpreted, according to Ibn ‘Abbās and others the view was 

that God Almighty’s words refer to deflowering virgins and that Ibn Qayyim had distinguished himself by penning a chapter on copulation among the inhabitants of Paradise and the fullest pleasure they experience in this.

This is but one example among many. And one invariably has to ask oneself what God has to do with this pornographic place, describing in detail highly intense sexual acts, such as ‘the deflowering of virgins’ and ‘copulation among the inhabitants of Paradise and the fullest pleasure they experience in this’. Is it God’s preoccupation to describe the abhorrent acts taking place in Heaven? Is Heaven some arena infested with sex and the pleasures of the flesh that men have left behind on earth? Do these not surely offend against the image of God, the All Holy One?

Is it God’s preoccupation to describe the abhorrent acts taking place in Heaven?

But the fact is that the Messenger of Islam is simply following the approach of the Qur’ān in this emphasis upon the presence of sex in Paradise where ṣaḥīḥ hadith ostensibly indicate the existence of a sexual relations in Paradise. Among these are what Abū Hurayra narrated: 

The Messenger of Allah was asked whether we meet our wives in Paradise? He said: “A man will get a hundred virgins a day” and according to Anas ibn Mālik the Prophet said: “The believer in Paradise will be given such and such power to perform sexual intercourse”. When asked: “O Messenger of Allah, can a man stand that?” He replied: “He will be given the power of one hundred men”. 

Now the Messenger of Islam does not speak merely from his whims for as the Qur’ān says: Nor doth he speak of (his own) desire^[2]. For the commentators, this is God’s confirmation that Muḥammad does not speak the Qur’ān from out of himself since It is nought but a Revelation revealed.^[3] that is, “nothing but a Revelation from Allah that has been revealed to him” in al-Ṭabarī’s commentary.

Thus Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdullah and the Lord of the Qur’ān speak using the same logic and approach, indicating that the Qur’ānic text and the Prophetic hadith hail from the same source as regards their conceptions, vision and approach. The one confirms the other and the purpose of the ‘hūr al-‘ayn’ in the era of Muḥammad was to attract the pagan Islamic tribes into his ranks, by seducing them with fantasies about having sex with these hūr al-‘ayn’ in Heaven should they be martyred during their maraudings.

Suggested Reading

Religious Delirium on Women

Conclusions

Firstly – what is important now, perhaps the most important thing, is to work to reduce the susceptibility of Muslim youth to promises of getting hūr al-‘ayn’ in Paradise if they are martyred in suicide operations, and to find ways to prevent them from joining terrorist organizations. To effect this requires that there be a clear discourse on this from Al-Azhar, because the authoritative reference for these terrorist organizations is the Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jamā‘a.  This means that Al-Azhar has a duty to 

cancel out or quarantine the subject of hūr al-‘ayn’ from all Qur’ānic texts, and from all the associated traditions on this, and delete it entirely from the literature on Islam, if we wish to preserve the upcoming generations, who are the foundations for the renaissance of the Nation.

Secondly – I  should like to conclude my brief investigation with the following elucidation: that the Lord of the Qur’ān texts, and what Muḥammad pronounces in the hadith texts, are products of the Islamic doctrinal imagination, a kind of sexual fixation given a religious underpinning: the sex with the hūr al-‘ayn’ in Paradise specified in the era of Muḥammad for those killed during the Prophet’s raids, later to be specified for suicide bombers in Islamic terrorist organizations. All these things are far removed from the beliefs of any of the monotheistic religions, even from chthonic religions. This is the main point.

^[1] Qur’ān XXXVI (Yā Sīn), 55.

^[2] Qur’ān LIII (al-Najm), 3.

^[3] Qur’ān LIII (al-Najm), 4.

See Part One of this essay here