MEMRI: '72 Black Eyed Virgins': A Muslim Debate on the Rewards of Martyrs

Inquiry and Analysis - Jihad and Terrorism Studies
October 30, 2001
No. 74

By Yotam Feldner*

Approximately two weeks prior to the September 11, 2001
attacks on New York City and Washington, DC a dispute
emerged between the CBS network and heads of two Islamic
organizations in the US regarding the motivation of suicide
bombers in Israel. The dispute was forgotten following the
attacks, but in their aftermath, another look at it is
warranted:

The Translation Dispute
On August 19, 2001, CBS's 60 Minutes aired a report on the
Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas. Reporter Bob
Simon interviewed Hamas operative Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who
recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu
Wardeh's words were translated into English by CBS as
follows: "I described to him how God would compensate the
martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become
a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and
everlasting happiness." (1)

Some Muslim leaders contended that the English translation
did not match the Arabic and accused CBS of fabricating the
quote. Leaders of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),
a US organization, wrote to 60 Minutes and demanded a
retraction, an apology, and time on the show for Islamic
scholars to explain the religion's true teachings regarding
violence and martyrdom.(2)

CBS News admitted that the English voiceover did not match
the Arabic quote, but played an unaired portion of the
interview for a Knight Ridder editor who speaks Arabic and
for two native Arabic speakers. After viewing the tapes,
Hafez Al-Mirazi Osman, Washington bureau chief of the
Al-Jazeera television network, stated that in the portion
that did not air the interviewee said: "Paradise has many
things. It is said it has everything a man would wish for.
It has 72 angels... or wives... It has the eternal blessing
that people would receive there..."

CBS translated the Arabic term hur 'ayn (3) as "virgins."
According to Osman and the other native Arabic speaker, Dr.
Maher Hathout, a scholar at the Islamic Center of Southern
California, the Arabic word has no sexual connotation or
gender. Hathout said that a more appropriate translation
would be "angel" or "heavenly being." CBS said its Arabic
expert insisted on CBS's translations.(4)

MPAC's Executive Director in Los Angeles, Salaam
Al-Maryati, said, "For Palestinians, this is about fighting
aggression and occupation, not about opportunities for
sexual fantasies." He added that the issue is important to
the estimated 7 to 10 million Muslims who he claims live in
the US, because it confirms their fears that media
organizations are intent on defaming their faith.(5)

In a published report, Hathout added, "There is nothing in
the Koran or in Islamic teachings about 70 virgins or sex
in Paradise. This is ridiculous, and every true Muslim
knows that." (6) According to Hathout, "the worst-case
scenario is that there is a deliberate spinning of the
news. It is very fashionable now to present the Muslims as
particularly susceptible to being crazy or blowing
themselves up."(7)

The Martyr's Reward in Islamic Tradition
Maryati's and Hathout's claims aroused the ire of Sheikh
Abd Al-Hadi Palazzi, head of the Cultural Institute of the
Italian Islamic Community. Sheikh Palazzi wrote: "The only
ridiculous thing is that someone who claims to be an
'Islamic scholar' [i.e. Hathout] makes public statements
which prove beyond any possible doubt that he has never
read the Tafsir [Koranic commentary] of Ibn Kathir and the
Sunan [religious rulings based on the customs of the
Prophet] of Imam Al-Tirmidhi, which are basic books for the
knowledge of Islam. Unfortunately, this attribution of
chairs to ignoramuses seems to be the rule in American
Islamic Centers controlled by the fundamentalist network of
the Muslim Brotherhood."

According to Islamic tradition, Sheikh Palazzi states there
are 72 wives for every believer who is admitted to
Paradise, not only for a martyr. The proof is in a Hadith
(Islamic tradition) collected by Al-Tirmidhi in the Book of
Sunan (volume IV, chapters on "The Features of Paradise as
described by the Messenger of Allah," Chapter 21: "About
the Smallest Reward for the People of Paradise," Hadith
2687).

Sheikh Palazzi added that it is also quoted by Ibn Kathir
in his Tafsir of Surah Al-Rahman (55), verse 72: "It was
mentioned by Daraj Ibn Abi Hatim that Abu-al-Haytham
Abdullah Ibn Wahb narrated from Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri, who
heard the Prophet Muhammad saying: 'The smallest reward for
the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000
servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated
with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance
from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a.'" (8)

Sheikh Palazzi cites verse 74 of the same Surah, "[The
chastity of the black-eyed] was not violated by man nor
jinn" to prove that that they are virgins. In addition, the
"black-eyed" are mentioned in three other Surahs in the
Koran: Al-Dukhan 54, Al-Tur 20, and Al-Waqi'a 20. Women
with "downcast eyes," that is, chaste women, are mentioned
in three Surahs: Al-Rahman 56-8, Al-Safat 48, and S, 52.

Al-Azhar University in Egypt, the main authority for Sunni
Islamic rulings, also takes "the black-eyed" seriously.
Al-Azhar's unofficial website features a religious ruling
section, in which the institution's clerics answer
questions by readers from all over the world. An Australian
Muslim asked the following: "If men [in Paradise] get 'the
black-eyed,' what do the women get?"

The answer, provided by the deputy director of Al-Azhar's
Center for Islamic Studies, Sheikh Abd Al-Fattah Gam'an,
read: "The Koran tells us that in Paradise believers get
'the black-eyed,' as Allah has said, 'And we will marry
them to 'the black-eyed.' 'The black-eyed' are white and
delicate, and the black of their eyes is blacker than black
and the white [of their eyes] is whiter than white. To
describe their beauty and their great number, the Koran
says that they are 'like sapphire and pearls' (Al-Rahman
58) in their value, in their color, and in their purity.
And it is said of them: '[They are] like well-protected
pearls' in shells (Al-Waqi'a 23), that is, they are as pure
as pearls in oysters and are not perforated, no hands have
touched them, no dust or dirt adheres to them, and they are
undamaged.'" It is further said: "'They are like
well-protected eggs' (Al-Safat 49), that is, their delicacy
is as the delicacy of the membrane beneath the shell of an
egg. Allah also said: 'The 'black-eyed' are confined to
pavilions' (Al-Rahman 70), that is, they are hidden within,
saved for their husbands."

"Most of 'the black-eyed' were first created in Paradise,
but some of them are women [who came to Paradise] from this
world, and are obedient Muslims who observe the words of
Allah: 'We created them especially, and have made them
virgins, loving, and equal in age.' This means that when
the women of this world are old and worn out, Allah creates
them [anew] after their old age into virgins who are
amiable to their husbands; 'equal in age' means equal to
one another in age. At the side of the Muslim in Paradise
are his wives from this world, if they are among the
dwellers in Paradise, along with 'the black-eyed' of
Paradise."

"If a woman is of the dwellers in Paradise but her husband
in this world is not of the dwellers in Paradise, as in the
case of Asia the wife of Pharaoh, she is given to one of
the dwellers in Paradise who is of the same status...
Regarding the woman who was married [during her life] to
more than one man in this world, and all her husbands are
dwellers in Paradise, she may choose among them, and she
chooses the best of them. It is said that Umm Salmah asked
the Prophet: 'Oh Prophet of Allah, a woman marries one,
two, or four husbands in this world and later she dies and
enters Paradise, and they enter with her. Which of them
will be her husband?' [The Prophet] answered: 'She...
chooses the best of them, saying, Oh Allah, this is the
best of them that was with me in this world, marry me to
him'... Thus it is known that the women of Paradise also
have husbands. Every woman has a husband. If her husband in
this world is of the dwellers in Paradise [he becomes her
husband in Paradise], and if her husband in this world is
an infidel, she is given to one of the dwellers in Paradise
who is suited to her in status and in the [strength] of his
belief."(9)

A Question of Belief
Dr. Hathout described the Koran passages as nothing more
than folklore, saying that such descriptions of Paradise
aren't meant to be taken literally, just as many Christians
do not really believe heaven has "streets paved with
gold."(10)

But the question is whether every "true Muslim" knows that
"there is nothing in the Koran or in Islamic teachings
about 70 virgins or sex in Paradise,"(11) as Dr. Hathout
said. Do Muslims living in areas where Jihad has been
declared - for example, the West Bank and Gaza Strip -
where political correctness is less a factor as it is where
Hathout lives, in Southern California, also maintain that
"such descriptions of Paradise aren't meant to be taken
literally?" Moreover, the more important question is, what
do the clerics say?

The death announcements of martyrs in the Palestinian press
often take the form of wedding, not funeral, announcements.
"Blessings will be accepted immediately after the burial
and until 10 p.m....at the home of the martyr's uncle,"
read one suicide bomber's death notice.(12) "With great
pride, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad marries the member of
its military wing... the martyr and hero Yasser Al-Adhami,
to 'the black-eyed,'" read another.(13)

Al Risala, the Hamas mouthpiece, published the will of
Sa'id Al-Hutari, who carried out the June 1, 2001 suicide
bombing outside the disco near the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv
that killed 23, mostly teenage girls. "I will turn my body
into bombs that will hunt the sons of Zion, blast them, and
burn their remains," Al-Hutari wrote. "Call out in joy, oh
my mother; distribute sweets, oh my father and brothers; a
wedding with 'the black-eyed' awaits your son in
Paradise."(14)

The same view is also evident in news reports in the
Palestinian press. Thus, for example, the reporter Nufuz
Al-Bakri reported the death of Wail 'Awad as follows: "The
mother of Wail 'Awad, from Deir El-Balah, did not plan on
holding a second wedding for her eldest son, after his
marriage on August 10, 2001 to his fiancée in a simple
ceremony attended only by the family. But yesterday was
Wail's real wedding day, and the angels of the Merciful
married him, together with the [other] martyrs, to 'the
black-eyed,' as all around [them] rose the cries of joy
that his mother dreamed of on the day of his wedding [to
his fiancée]."(15)

Hamas official Ashraf Sawaftah told of a ceremony honoring
Izz Al-Din Al-Masri, who carried out the suicide bombing of
the Sbarro pizzeria in central Jerusalem on August 9, 2001:
"His relatives distributed sweets and accepted their son as
a bridegroom married to 'the black-eyed,' not as someone
who had been killed and was being laid in the ground."(16)

The uncle of Nassim Abu 'Aasi, who died while he was
attempting to carry out an attack, said that when the
deceased was asked why he was not married, he would always
reply, "Why should I relinquish 'the black-eyed' to marry
women of clay [i.e. flesh an blood]?"(17)

"This is part of the Islamic belief," Hamas leader Isma'il
Abu Shanab once explained to AFP. "Anyone who dies a
martyr's death has a reward. If the martyr dreams of 'the
black-eyed,' he'll get her."(18)

The Hamas movement educates the children in its schools,
beginning in kindergarten, to believe that a martyr is
given virgins in Paradise. Jack Kelley of USA Today visited
Hamas schools in Gaza City, where he saw an 11-year-old boy
speak to his class: "I will make my body a bomb that will
blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and
monkeys... I will tear their bodies into little pieces and
will cause them more pain than they will ever know." His
classmates shouted in response, "Allah Akhbar," and his
teacher shouted, "May the virgins give you pleasure." A
16-year-old Hamas youth leader in a Gaza refugee camp told
Kelley, "Most boys can't stop thinking about the
virgins."(19)

Along with the media, Palestinian Muslim clerics also help
instill this belief. In an interview with the Egyptian
daily Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Palestinian Authority Mufti Sheikh
'Ikrima Sabri was asked what he felt when he prayed for the
soul of a martyr. He answered: "I feel that the martyr is
lucky, because angels bring him to his wedding in
Paradise... I spoke with one young man, who told me: 'I
want to marry the black-eyed women in Paradise.' The next
day, he died a martyr's death. I am certain that his mother
was filled with joy over his heavenly wedding. Such a son
is worthy of such a mother.'"(20)

Sheikh Abd Al-Salam Abu Shukheydem, Chief Mufti of the
Palestinian Authority police force, mentioned 'the
black-eyed' as one of the rewards of martyrs: "From the
moment the first drop of his blood is spilled, he does not
feel the pain of his wounds and he is forgiven for all his
sins; he sees his seat in Paradise; he is saved from the
torment of the grave; he is saved from the great horror of
Judgement Day; he marries 'the black-eyed'; he vouches for
70 of his family members; he gains the crown of honor, the
precious stone of which is better than this entire world
and everything in it."(21) In a Friday sermon broadcast on
Palestinian television, Sheikh Ismail Al-Radwan declared:
"He is given 72 'black-eyed.'"(22)

"The Americans and the eunuchs at their sides [i.e. the
rulers of Arab and Islamic countries]... think that if
they kill us, they will win," wrote Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, a
lecturer in the Islamic Law Department at Gaza Islamic
University, "They do not know that with their weapons they
only expedite our arrival in Paradise. We yearn to reach
Paradise; it is our abode, and in it are 'the black-eyed,'
confined to pavilions, and also there are [women] with
downcast eyes whose chastity has not been violated before
us by either man or jinn. In contrast, the value of this
world in which we live, which they [i.e. the Americans and
the Arab rulers] think that they have attained, is in our
eyes not worth the wing of a mosquito..."(23)

In an interview with the Israeli daily Ha'aretz,(24) Sheikh
Raid Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel,
and the most important political and religious leader of
Israel's Arab population was asked "Do 70 virgins await a
shahid (a martyr) in paradise?" Sheikh Salah replied: "On
this matter, we have proof. It is written in the Koran and
in the Sunna [the traditions about the life of Mohammed].
This matter is clear. The shahid receives from Allah six
special things, including 70 virgins, no torment in the
grave, and the choice of 70 members of his family and his
confidants to enter paradise with him."

The suicide attackers who carried out the September 11
attacks also believed that 'the black-eyed' were one of the
rewards awaiting them in Paradise. The letter of
instructions found in Nawwaf Al-Hamzi's car mentioned 'the
black-eyed' twice: "...Don't show signs of uneasiness and
tension; be joyful and happy, set your mind at ease, and be
confident and rest assured that you are carrying out an
action that Allah likes and that pleases Him. Therefore, a
day will come, Allah willing, that you will spend with 'the
black-eyed' in Paradise... Know that the gardens [i.e.
Paradise] have been decorated for you with the most
beautiful ornaments and that 'the black-eyed' will call to
you: 'Come, faithful of Allah," after having donned their
finest garments."(25)

'The Black-Eyed' and Sexual Relations
Are "the black-eyed" available for sex? Some evidently
think they are. The Israeli media reported on a suicide
bomber caught before he managed to carry out his mission;
he was wearing a towel as a loincloth to protect his
genitals for use in Paradise.

The question of sexual relations was also brought up in an
interview that Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi
gave to the Egyptian weekly Aakher Sa'a. To the question
"What is the meaning of the Koranic verse 'And we will
marry them to the 'black-eyed?'" Tantawi replied, "This
verse heralds to faithful believers that in the world to
come, Allah will set 'the black-eyed' to serve them, so
that they will have wives, along with the righteous women
from this world."

Getting straight to the point, the interviewer asked, "Do
people in Paradise have sexual relations?" "This issue is
known only to Allah," said Tantawi. "It is enough that we
know that Paradise offers [everything] to satisfy the soul
and gladden the eye. Regarding other, private matters,
only Allah knows. It is enough for us that the Koran says,
'It has [everything] to satisfy the soul and gladden the
eye, and in it you have life everlasting.'"(26)

In a review of the Egyptian press in the London daily
Al-Quds Al-Arabi, the veteran Egyptian journalist Hasanain
Kurum explained that Sheikh Tantawi knowingly gave a vague
answer to the question, so as to avoid a scandal like the
one created a few years previously by the late author and
journalist Muhammad Galal Al-Kushk. Al-Kushk wrote, "The
men in Paradise have sexual relations not only with the
women [who come from this world] and with 'the black-eyed,'
but also with the serving boys." According to Kurum,
Al-Kushk also stated, "In Paradise, a believer's penis is
eternally erect."(27)

*Yotam Feldner is MEMRI's director of Media Analysis.

Endnotes:

(1) As cited by Joyce M. Davis, Knight Ridder Newspapers,
August 24, 2001
www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=996.
(2) Knight Ridder Newspapers, Joyce M. Davis, August 24,
2001.
(3) According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
(www.m-w.com) the derivative English word "houri" entered
the English language in 1737. A houri is "one of the
beautiful maidens that in Muslim belief live with the
blessed in Paradise" or "a voluptuously beautiful young
woman."
(4) Knight Ridder Newspapers, Joyce M. Davis, September 6,
2001.
(5) The Final Call, September 4, 2001.
(6) The Final Call, September 4, 2001.
(7) Knight Ridder Newspapers, Joyce M. Davis, August 23,
2001 http://bangladesh-web.com/news/aug/27/qv4n669.htm.
(8) The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, September 6, 2001.
(9) www.lailatalqadr.com/stories/p1260503.shtml.
(10) Knight Ridder Newspapers, Joyce M. Davis, September 6,
2001.
(11) The Final Call, September 4, 2001.
(12) Al-Ayam (Palestinian Authority), July 21, 2001.
(13) Al-Istiqlal (Palestinian Authority), October 4, 2001.
(14) Al-Risala (Palestinian Authority), July 7, 2001.
(15) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), October 4,
2001.
(16) Al-Risala (Palestinian Authority), August 16, 2001.
(17) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), September
11, 2001.
(18) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), August 17,
2001.
(19) USA Today, June 26, 2001.
(20) Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (Egypt), October 28, 2001.
(21) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), September
17, 1999.
(22) Palestinian Authority television, August 17, 2001.
(23) Al-Risala (Palestinian Authority), October 11, 2001.
(24) Ha'aretz, October 26, 2001.
(25) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), September 30, 2001.
(26) Aakher Sa'a (Egypt), May 9, 2001.
(27) Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), May 11, 2001.

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