Andromache of Scythia, the main character in The Old Guard movie series, once said something interesting. She said that sometimes confusion can be helpful. This topic of the 72 virgins “in the Qur’an” is an example of when confusion has not helped. Let me tell you how this confusion came about.
And yes… Ramadan Mubarak. It’s day 27 today, and I am somewhere in Pandora, cohabiting with 6- to 8-foot-tall, dark-skinned humanoid species. I am in Juba, South Sudan. The days and nights of this year’s Ramadan have flown by really fast. May Allah accept our thirst, our hunger, and our charities in this holy month as acts of worship. Amin.
Haaa… yes… the virgins. Let’s talk about them. I am sure we have all heard about them, the virgins said to be the reward for Muslim men in paradise. How laughable. It’s something we all hear about, but rarely talk about. Muslims hear it and often don’t feel the need to correct the notion. Non-Muslims hear it and either choose not to repeat it out of respect for their friends or families, or they taunt you with it. Either way, let’s hear what the Qur’an actually says.
When Allah speaks about Jannah (paradise) in the Qur’an, the tone used is usually serene. It is calm and almost shy. He speaks about Jannah as a place of peace, of hearts being at ease and at rest. The Qur’an never once describes Jannah in a crude manner or in graphic ways.
The word “ḥūr al-ʿayn,” a term often translated as “dark-eyed ones” or “houris,” is described as companions with lowered gazes, untouched by man or jinn, living in garden pavilions. It was never meant to be pornographic as proponents of this fallacy make it seem. The word is also the plural of “Ahwar” (masculine) and “Hawra” (feminine). It is a gender-neutral adjective for purity. The term appears in four separate surahs: Al-Rahman, Al-Waqi‘ah, Al-Dukhan, and Al-Tur.
In 7th-century poetic Arabic, this was the ultimate metaphor for insight. It’s not about an object being looked at; it is about the clarity of vision that the people of Jannah possess. The Qur’an, in Chapter 56, Verse 36, uses the word “abkāran.” Crude translations render it as “virgins,” but the metaphysical meaning of the word is closer to “first-fruits.”
In every major verse of the Qur’an that talks about Jannah (2:25, 3:15, 4:57), Allah uses the phrase “Azwājun Muṭahharatun.”
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Azwāj – meaning spouses or companions (gender-neutral plural)
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Muṭahharatun – meaning purified
So in this case, Islam as prescribed by the Qur’an promises purified companionship. Man-made interpretations turned partnership into possession.
Qur’an 43:71 also anchors the entire afterlife in one principle:
“And there will be whatever the souls desire and the eyes find delight in.”
Note the word “souls.” Jannah is soul-centred, not gender-centred.
Now, where does the number 72 come from?
It is not found anywhere in the Qur’an, nor in any authentic hadith from the Bukhari or Muslim collections. It comes from a specific narration in Tirmidhi, which the author himself flagged as strange or weak. My friends, an entire doctrine has been built on a foundation of weakness.
The most dangerous lie about the afterlife is that it is a reward for repressed lust, or like a place where you get to be “very bad” because you were “very good” in this life. No. Far from it. This belief is man-made.
So why does a skyscraper built on sand still stand firm? Because it sells. To extremists, it is a recruitment tool for their ego. To ignorant non-Muslims and Islamophobes, it is a tool for mockery. Both groups end up agreeing on a version of Islam that the Qur’an itself does not recognise, the same narrative used by ISIS and other groups masquerading as Muslims.
For us Muslims, the goal is purification. You do not go to Jannah because you want to indulge your ego. You go there because you have outgrown it. Jannah isn’t a place for unchecked desire; it is the place where desire no longer hurts you.
Islam is complete and does not need exaggeration to be beautiful. It does not need fantasy to be appealing. Allah says in Qur’an 5:3:
“Today I have perfected your faith for you, completed My favour upon you, and chosen Islam as your way.”
In conclusion, and there is really only one conclusion:
There are no 72 virgins in the Qur’an.