{"id":450,"date":"2026-03-16T22:36:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukmanjaji.com\/?p=450"},"modified":"2026-03-16T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:37:07","slug":"lets-talk-about-the-72-virgins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukmanjaji.com\/2026\/03\/16\/lets-talk-about-the-72-virgins\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Talk About the “72 Virgins”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andromache of Scythia, the main character in The Old Guard<\/em> movie series, once said something interesting. She said that sometimes confusion can be helpful. This topic of the 72 virgins \u201cin the Qur\u2019an\u201d is an example of when confusion has not helped. Let me tell you how this confusion came about.<\/p>\n

And yes\u2026 Ramadan Mubarak. It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Haaa\u2026 yes\u2026 the virgins. Let\u2019s 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\u2019s something we all hear about, but rarely talk about. Muslims hear it and often don\u2019t 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\u2019s hear what the Qur\u2019an actually says.<\/p>\n

When Allah speaks about Jannah (paradise) in the Qur\u2019an, 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\u2019an never once describes Jannah in a crude manner or in graphic ways.<\/p>\n

The word \u201c\u1e25\u016br al-\u02bfayn,\u201d a term often translated as \u201cdark-eyed ones\u201d or \u201chouris,\u201d 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 \u201cAhwar\u201d (masculine) and \u201cHawra\u201d (feminine). It is a gender-neutral adjective for purity. The term appears in four separate surahs: Al-Rahman, Al-Waqi\u2018ah, Al-Dukhan, and Al-Tur.<\/p>\n

In 7th-century poetic Arabic, this was the ultimate metaphor for insight. It\u2019s not about an object being looked at; it is about the clarity of vision that the people of Jannah possess. The Qur\u2019an, in Chapter 56, Verse 36, uses the word \u201cabk\u0101ran.\u201d Crude translations render it as \u201cvirgins,\u201d but the metaphysical meaning of the word is closer to \u201cfirst-fruits.\u201d<\/p>\n

In every major verse of the Qur\u2019an that talks about Jannah (2:25, 3:15, 4:57), Allah uses the phrase \u201cAzw\u0101jun Mu\u1e6dahharatun.\u201d<\/p>\n