[edit]Introduction
Whilst there are
many references to be found in the
Qur'an and other
Islamic scriptures referring to the general concept of virgins in heaven, many people are under the misconception that there is only one
weak reference to the specific number of 72 virgins. These narrations are in fact found in many hadith collections with varying levels of authenticity.
[edit]72 Virgins Hadith Narrations
Shaykh
Gibril Haddad is a hadith expert (muhaddith),
[1] recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the
Shari’ah.
[2] In 2009, he was listed amongst the inaugural "500 most influential Muslims in the world," and was referred to as "one of the clearest voices of traditional Islam in the West".
[1] The following borrows mainly from a 2005
fatwa issued by him.
[3]
[edit]Reported in Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Sunan al-Tirmidhi
“For the Shahid in the Divine presence there will be six qualities: [1] he will be forgiven from the first moment his blood is spilled; [2] he shall see his seat in Paradise and be protected against the punishment of the grave; [3] he shall be safe from the Greatest Terror [the rising of the dead]; [4] he shall be crowned with the diadem of dignity, one ruby of which is worth more than the entire world and its contents; [5] he shall be coupled with
seventy-two spouses from the wide-eyed maidens of Paradise; and [6] he shall be granted to intercede for seventy of his relatives.”
This is a “fair, sound, single-chained hadith (hasan sahih gharib).”
Abu Sa`id al-Khudri said, Allah be well-pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah said, upon him blessings and peace: “The humblest of the People of Paradise shall have eighty thousand servants and
seventy-two wives. A palace of pearl and peridot(a: A pale green variety of chrysolite; used as a gemstone) and sapphire shall be erected for him as wide as the distance between al-Jabiya [a valley about 70 kms. East of Makka] and San`a’ [in Yemen].”
[edit]Reported in Ibn Majah, Ibn `Adi in the Kamil, and al-Bayhaqi in al-Ba`th wal-Nushur
Abu Umama said, Allah be well-pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah said, upon him blessings and peace: “None is made to enter Paradise by Allah Most High except Allah Most High shall marry him to
seventy-two wives, two of them from the wide-eyed maidens of Paradise and
seventy of them his inheritance from the People of Hellfire, not one of them but her attraction never lags nor his arousal ever wanes.”
Al-Suyuti marked its chain as “fair” (hasan) in al-Jami` al-Saghir (7989).
[edit]Reported in Sifat al-Janna, al-`Uqayli in the Du`afa’, and Musnad of Abu Bakr al-Bazzar
Anas said, Allah be well-pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah said, upon him blessings and peace: “The servant in Paradise shall be married with
seventy wives.” Someone said, “Messenger of Allah, can he bear it?” He said: “He will be given strength for a hundred.”
[edit]Reported in Sunan al-Kubra and Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Anas said, Allah be well-pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah said, upon him blessings and peace:
“The servant in Paradise shall be married with seventy wives.” Someone said, “Messenger of Allah, can he bear it?” He said: “He will be given strength for a hundred.”
From Zayd ibn Arqam, Allah be well-pleased with him, when an incredulous Jew or Christian asked the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, “Are you claiming that a man will eat and drink in Paradise??” He replied: “Yes, by the One in Whose hand is my soul, and each of them will be given the strength of a hundred men in his eating, drinking, coitus, and pleasure.”
Ibn Abi Shayba, Ibn Hibban, and al-Hakim declared it
sahih (authentic).
[edit]Reported in Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Abu Hurayra said, Allah be well-pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah said, upon him blessings and peace: “The humblest of the People of Paradise in rank shall have seven levels and as he will be on the sixth, below the seventh, he will have three hundred servants, every morning and evening three hundred dishes of gold shall be brought before him, every dish carrying something the other does not. He will taste pleasure as sharply with the first dish as he will with the last. He shall say, ‘My Lord! If you gave me permission, I would feed all the people of Paradise and water them from what I have and nothing should go missing from it.’ He will most certainly have
seventy-two wives from the wide-eyed maidens of Paradise, the couch of only one of whom is as wide as a square mile on earth.”
[edit]Reported by Abu al-Shaykh in al-`Azama and al-Bayhaqi in al-Ba`th wal-Nushur
Ibn Abi Awfa said, Allah be well-pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah said, upon him blessings and peace: “Every man from the People of Paradise shall be married off to four thousand virgins, eight thousand slave-girls, and one hundred wide-eyed maidens of Paradise. They shall all meet him within every seven days. They shall say with their exquisite voices no creature has ever heard the like before: ‘We are the everlasting women, we never grow old, we are the refined women, we never grow sour, we are the ever-pleased women, we never anger, we are the sedentary ones, we never travel away, blessings to him who is for us and we are for him!’”
[edit]Reported in Ma`rifat al-Sahaba and Tarikh Dimashq
Hatib ibn Abi Balta`a said, Allah be well-pleased with him: I heard the Messenger of Allah say, upon him blessings and peace: “The believer in Paradise shall be married off to
seventy-twowomen,
seventy women of the hereafter and two women of the women of this world.”
[edit]Reported in al-Saghir and al-Awsat, Sifat al-Janna, and al-Khatib in Tarikh Baghdad
Abu Hurayra said, Allah be well-pleased with him: It was asked, “Messenger of Allah, do we reach our women in Paradise?” He replied, “A man will reach in a single day one hundred virgins.”
Abu Dya’ al-Maqdisi declared it sahih according to Ibn al-Qayyim in Hadi al-Arwah and Ibn Kathir in al-Fitan wal-Malahim. Khaldun al-Ahdab considered it sahih (authentic) in Zawa’id Tarikh Baghdad (section 100).
Ibn `Abbas narrated something similar. Abu Ya`la in his Musnad with a good chain of narrators (meanking the hadith is Hasan) as indicated by al-Haythami in Majma` al-Zawa’id.
[edit]Other Related Hadith
Muhammad declared in multiple sahih narrations that
the majority of the inhabitants of
Hell are women, but according to the following hadith:
I heard the Messenger of Allah say, upon him blessings and peace: “I entered Paradise and saw that most of its dwellers were women.”
Shaykh Gibril Haddad quoted the above hadith to suggest that this is referring to all the wives a male Muslim martyr will have in heaven.
[edit]Fatwa’s on the Authenticity of the Hadith
Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid's Islam Q&A website quoted a hadith about the 72 virgins grading it as Hassan (good), it states:
It was reported in the hadeeth of al-Miqdaam ibn Ma’di Karb that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“The martyr (shaheed) has seven blessings from Allaah: he is forgiven from the moment his blood is first shed; he will be shown his place in Paradise; he will be spared the trial of the grave; and he will be secure on the Day of the Greatest Terror (the Day of Judgement); there will be placed on his head a crown of dignity, one ruby of which is better than this world and all that is in it; he will be married to seventy-two of al-hoor al-‘iyn; and he will be permitted to intercede for seventy of his relatives.”
According to another report, the martyr has six blessings from Allaah. According to other reports (the number is) six, or nine, or ten.
(
Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, who said it is a hasan hadeeth. Also narrated by Ibn Maajah in al-Sunan, by Ahmad, by ‘Abd al-Razzaaq in al-Musannaf, by al-Tabaraani in al-Kabeer, and by Sa’eed ibn Mansoor in al-Sunan).
Shaykh Gibril Haddad at SunniPath, an online Islamic Academy, mentions this hadith saying:
The stronger hadiths indicate that the Believers shall have two wives, in Bukhari and Muslim from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace: Each man among them shall have two wives, the marrow of each of the two wives' shanks will be seen glimmering under the flesh, and there is not in all Paradise a single unmarried man. They will have up to a hundred concubines in Paradise while the Shuhada shall have
seventy-two wives, numbers indicating abundance rather than an exact quantity, and Allah knows best.
Mufti Ebrahim Desai's website AskImam mentioned many different sahih (authentic) and hasan (good) versions of the hadith, they said:
The mention of 70 or more Hoors for the Shaheed is reported by several Sahaaba (Radhiallaahu Anhum), of them are:
1. Sayyiduna Miqdaad ibn Ma?adikarib (Radhiallaahu Anhu) recorded by Imaam Tirmidhi in his Sunan (Hadith1663). Imam Tirmidhi has classified this Hadith as Sahih (authentic).
2. Sayyiduna Ubaadah ibn Thaabit (Radhiallaahu Anhu) recorded by Imaam Ahmad in his Musnad (Hadith17117), Imaam Bazzaar in his Musnad and Imaam Tabrani in his al-Majmual Kabir. (Majma-uz-zawaaid vol.5 pg.293). Hafiz Munzhiri (ra) has classified the chain of narrators of Musnad Ahmad as Hasan (sound) . (al-Targheeb vol.2 pg.320). And Haafiz al-Haythami (ra) has mentioned that the narrators of Musnad Ahmad and Tabrani are all reliable.
and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best
Moulana Muhammad ibn Moulana Haroon Abbassommar
FACULTY OF SPECIALTY IN HADITH
[edit]Conclusion
This article has shown us at least 3 things
- That Islam teaches that the martyrs who die in Jihad get 72 wives (virgins)
- That two of them are “from the wide-eyed maidens of Paradise and seventy of them his inheritance from the People of Hellfire”
- That these hadith are considered authentic by many Muslim scholars
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