Kenan Camurcu

Inspired by Trump's "take over" rhetoric regarding Gaza, Nusra leader al-Julani, with the full backing of the US and Europe, succeeded in motivating his fighters to go to their deaths for years by promising them numerous houris in Paradise, enabling his takeover of Syria in December 2024. It will be hard to forget the jihadists, wearing bomb vests, their eyes gleaming with the absolute conviction that they would meet houris, plunging into mosques, funerals, and crowded markets, instantly slaughtering dozens of innocent people. Even if Europeans see the new justice minister of Syria statement – "yes, we did such things back then" – as a charming and sympathetic confession.

Indeed, their subtle calculation in granting Salafis a state in Syria to prevent frenzy-inflamed fanatics obsessed with houris from blowing themselves up in European squares seems to be accurate. Through a quid pro quo readmission agreement, they will both satisfy the demographic needs of the Salafi state and ensure that the free radicals, impatient to meet houris, who are roaming as biological weapons in European cities, will be quite useful in Syria to counter any potential mass reaction of discontent, instead of threatening Western cities.

Undoubtedly, al-Julani and his instant-general commanders also relied on stimulants while sending their jihadists to kill and be killed for Allah, hoping to meet houris in Paradise. For example, the captagon tablets that the jihadists, now free from being terrorists after conquering Syria, are effortlessly finding everywhere. Pharmacologists would not deny the high-level effectiveness of this magical supplement in providing the numbness required to detonate a bomb vest.

All the fantastic sequences they attributed to Hasan Sabbah, the lord of Alamut, and his fedayeen, as students of European fantasy literature, are, in fact, their real world.

In this article, we will not focus on the pharmacological support for the absolute conviction to sprint to death for the sake of killing, but rather on the anthropology of the orgy fantasy with houris that excites Muslim men.

The Muslim Man's Longing for "Budding-Breasted Girls"

The longing for "heavenly girls with budding breasts" is the great desire of the pedophilic Muslim man. So great that it nullifies consciousness and judgment. It's a state of excitement that leads to the distortion of some Qur'anic verses and their translation with astonishing physiognomic details. On the other hand, they certainly do not refrain from experiencing a taste of their otherworldly aspirations in this world. Cases of harassment, rape, and abuse of young children, regardless of gender, constitute the bulk of the crime archives.

The fantasy of pedophilic Muslim men, who go to bed dreaming of unlimited sex with houris, is boundless. They live with the promise of sex with girls and women whose numbers, according to narrations, range from 72 to 8,000, with some narrations specifying 4,000 virgins and 8,000 widows (Zabidi, 14/606). Moreover, these girls will always be virgins. Their hymens will be immediately repaired after each intercourse, restoring their virginity (Suyuti, 1/86). Young women who do not menstruate, always virgins, their virginity renewed every time. Like the curse of Sisyphus.

Dr. Fehim Emir, in his article titled "Bismillah, Kant und der Islam", wrote that Kant saw Muslims as eternally lustful. He says, "Muslims love to die because houris await them in Paradise."

While holding his prejudices stemming from his racism (Özbek, p. 26), there is a valid point in what Kant said about Islam: Islam is a kind of opium journey; an irrational belief guided by false visions, dominated by primitive senses; an emotional ecstasy provoked by mystics whose dubious views are immune to rational questions. His famous sentence in Critique of Practical Reason is: "If practical reason is conditioned by inclinations (...) and placed at the basis, then Muhammad's paradise (...) would forcibly impose its own monstrosity upon reason according to its own taste. It is better to have no reason at all than to abandon reason to such dreams." (Kant, p. 131).

Freud's assertion that religion is a collective/massive obsessive neurosis (Freud, p. 40) perfectly fits the unquestioning and unreasoned adoption of bizarre, strange, crazy beliefs by abolishing the reason that should be used to decide on belief.

Muslims plan that such a religion will be very attractive to men from other beliefs or universes of unbelief, and they place the houri belief in Paradise at the center of their da'wah (preaching). Since they don't even consider women in this world, they have no concern that women will receive nothing in the afterlife. This is because they share the same belief as thinkers in ancient Greece, the Christian Middle Ages, and the Enlightenment who considered women as beings devoid of reason.

Is Orgy with Houris Allah's Method of Encouraging Men to Worship?

There are very fundamental and important questions about the houri issue that Muslims do not even consider:

• Does Allah motivate worship by a sexual fantasy to be experienced in Paradise, excluding women and only for men?
• Is an orgy with houris Allah's method of encouraging men to servitude?
• Is Allah trying to sustain His religion by promising dozens, hundreds, even thousands of young girls for sexual relations in Paradise to those who die for Him?
• Is it possible for a God who uses tiny girls, whose breasts haven't even developed, as a reward, to be Most Gracious and Most Merciful? Is there no problem with this belief?
• Isn't the conception of a God who does whatever He wishes without being bound by any moral rules strange?
• If the houri reward is a very important motivation, shouldn't one wonder why it is not repeated in numerous verses, as is the case with other matters, and why such grand conclusions are drawn from uncertain expressions in only a few verses?
• Why were Qur'anic verses interpreted according to fantastic houri details, even though none of the houri narrations reach the Prophet?

The army of houris that Muslims believe will be presented to them in Paradise if they die while killing infidels is proportionate to the magnitude of deprivation in this world. It is the otherworldly fantasy of a sexual euphoria that is tried in this world where polygamy is limited to four women.

If we were doing sociology of religion here, we would merely describe and portray beliefs and the societies that hold them. But we are seeking help from philosophy, and we must consider the right-wrong, good-evil evaluations.

First, a Pinch of Method

Thanks to the Annales School and Braudel, the importance of studying history as a flow of time that takes into account all aspects of humans and societies was realized. Otherwise, history would merely consist of fictional stories inflated with states, wars, treaties, great personalities, and so on. History written without considering climate, population, economy, traditions, language, culture, etc., is nothing but a fantastical tale. Everything in religious life, even beliefs, is history, and accurate results can only be reached if they are examined with the method Braudel deemed necessary.

Like other religions and beliefs, Islam, as an anthropological case, was very late in adapting to this method. Therefore, it is light-years away from reasonable and mature evaluations with its unhinged sanctifications that normalize dying and killing for its sake. It has no contribution to human accumulation or civilization. On the contrary, it is stubbornly determined to destroy everything good with blind opposition. If it stagnates in this state, the distance between it and rationality, common sense, and fairness will widen further, and after a while, it will only be a subject for psychiatry.

In such a deeply entrenched crisis, clinging tightly to Islamophobia literature or expecting pity with tearful laments of victimhood, instead of seeking a lasting solution, is nothing but a cunning way to buy time to escape from what truly needs to be done. The historical journey of developed societies testifies that Muslim societies cannot get back on track without tearing off the ill-fitting patches from their Islamic bundle.

The Problem of Attributing Meaning to Verses with Fabricated Narrations

A common feature of numerous examples, such as the houri issue, is that meaning has been given to verses through fabricated narrations, and to preserve these meanings, even the literal meanings of words have been interfered with. We will explain this problem shortly, both for the beginner-level reader and for those at an advanced reading and expert level.

Our issue is essentially related to text interpretation debates, and Muslims, instead of trying to reach the correct interpretation of the relevant verses, use those verses to confirm the sex fantasy with houris that has invaded their minds. So much so that their consciousness is veiled to the extent that they cannot see that the word "houri" is not mentioned in the Qur'an, nor is the word feminine, nor is it even a noun. In other words, Muslims are exciting themselves out of nothing with an image they themselves have created. Houri or houris are a masturbatory construct in the mind of Muslim sexual hunger. But it is dangerous enough to die for.

Giving rampant sexual and pedophilic meanings to expressions in some verses with a mind lost in a fantasy vortex is a typical case of overinterpretation from the perspective of Umberto Eco's universe of semiosis. Although Eco is against it, he does not object to keeping overinterpretation within the realm of legitimacy. However, the sexual and pedophilic meanings attributed to some expressions in Qur'anic verses are marginal, illegitimate, and objectionable, exceeding overinterpretation by far.

Using the Text Instead of Interpreting It

Richard Rorty, the pragmatist philosopher who commented on Umberto Eco's hermeneutics, is famous for opposing the interpretation of texts and advocating their use (Rorty, p. 115). His notion of using a text instead of interpreting it is precisely what Muslims do to the Qur'an. Although the branch of knowledge called tafsir (exegesis) means interpretation, in reality, Muslims mostly benefit from the Qur'an by basing their approach on using the text.

One might recall Kierkegaard's story of Abraham sacrificing his son, which he narrated and interpreted through different scenarios in Fear and Trembling (Kierkegaard, pp. 11-14). It is a perfect example of overinterpretation. Although some explain this situation by his lack of knowledge and inadequacy in reading the Bible, he himself describes himself as "not in the least interested in philosophy" in the introduction to his book published under the name "Silentio." Perhaps out of modesty, or perhaps because he was aware of his overinterpretation. He lacked the linguistic and religious knowledge to conduct a Tanakh analysis. He could only look at a Biblical translation. While there are interpretations that object to the literal understanding of the story, Kierkegaard's preference for the literal meaning over a metaphorical reading can be attributed either to his ignorance or his ill intent. Or perhaps he did so because only a literal reading would allow him to create impassioned literature. If he had regarded the story as a dream or relied on a metaphorical reading, he could not have produced a tragedy.

The carnivorous motivation might have been effective in Muslims' choice to select the most tragic interpretation of the Abraham-Isaac story and transfer it to their religion, instead of seeing it as a dream and metaphor. This is evident from their transformation of animal sacrifice, which is obligatory and valid only during the Hajj, into a passionately performed act of worship everywhere. Despite the Qur'an (Hajj 22:37) explicitly stating that meat and blood do not reach Allah, but rather intention and good deeds are accepted. For example, they celebrate the sad and disturbing act of animal sacrifice with a "festival" (Bayram). Even though the last day of Hajj is called "Hajj al-Akbar," they called it "Eid al-Adha" (Sacrifice Feast). If they had felt connected to nature like peoples and cultures who respect and are loyal to living beings, they would have suffered. Slaughtering animals would have been a rebellion against the desperation of the necessity of nourishment.

Fantasies Inflamed by Uneducated Preachers

Muslims' excessive, wild, hysterical, and neurotic belief in the "houri" issue is similar. The fervent fantasies inflamed by uneducated, unqualified, unreasoning, and ignorant preachers, based on fabricated narrations they found or heard here and there, are examples of frenzy requiring urgent psychiatric intervention or supervised release as a preventive measure for children.

The "houri" they eagerly hope to meet is entirely a figment of imagination. Aside from the fact that no such word is used in the verses, the expressions translated and interpreted as hinting at houris have entirely different meanings in their historical periods and anthropological reality.

Allamah Tabataba'i, the philosopher author of the famous Al-Mizan tafsir, has a warning regarding methodology:

"In all languages, there are words used in their original meanings. But some words also begin to be used in dialogues and among the public with the conceptual and customary meanings they have acquired over time. So much so that their idiomatic and customary use surpasses their original meaning to the extent that the original meaning is forgotten. This kind of usage is now an allegorical or metaphorical expression where it has separated from its original meaning and another meaning has widely replaced it. Arabic is no exception. For example, while the word 'bakara' (virginity) originally means 'fresh' and 'undamaged,' this word has now acquired a unique meaning in custom and other languages, although it is not entirely unrelated to its original meaning. Or, while the word 'farj' (vagina) in Arabic originally means 'split,' it has now moved away from its original meaning and acquired a special meaning (vagina) in relation to women." (Tabataba'i, 20/286).

Let's add to the late Allamah's point: For example, the word "Qur'an" now refers to the book printed in printing houses (mushaf), but when the Prophet was alive, there was no such book, and the word did not have this meaning. For example, the claim that the Qur'an cannot be touched without ablution was therefore invented later, based on the new meaning of the word, and a verse (Al-Waqi'ah 56:79) was even found and corrupted to support this claim. There are many such examples, and for this reason, existing Islam is quite different from the Islam taught by the Prophet.

The fundamental question concerning the method of determining meaning and interpretation is this: Why are descriptions such as houri, ghilman, wildan, tara'ib, qasirat, etc., which excite pedophiles in the Qur'an, vague, obscure, blurry, and unclear? Why were houris not mentioned with such clarity in the verses presented as evidence, leaving no room for interpretation or dispute? If these descriptions are not about houris, what are they about, and what message do they convey?

Revelation and Prophethood as an Anthropological Issue

Reminding that we will discuss the Qur'an, revelation, and prophethood as a geographical, historical, cultural, and anthropological issue in another article, let's just note our initial proposition relevant to the methodological knowledge in this article: According to the theory of the famous thinker Abdulkarim Soroush, the revelation seen or heard by the Prophet is a kind of dream, but one he experienced while conscious and awake. It is also very difficult to express a dream in everyday language. The difficulty in the meanings of verses unrelated to social life stems from this. Soroush wrote his theory in four long articles.

Since Allah would not speak like a human, contrary to classical theory, the Qur'an was not revealed to the Prophet in letters and words. In fact, revelation did not even "descend." Because "nuzul" does not only mean "to descend." It also means "to arrive," "to reach." In Arabic, one "descends" to a town at the end of a journey (نزل بالبلد), meaning one arrives, reaches it. This usage also exists in Turkish. For example, going to the market in my city İzmit is "going down to the market."

In short, there is actually no top-down hierarchy in the phenomenon of revelation. Because the prophet, in a suitable state of mind, reached the revelation and tried to convey what he saw and heard to those around him. Many narrations state that he experienced an extraordinary state while this was happening, that he came to himself when that moment ended, and that he returned to normal life. The reason why Western orientalists called that state an "epileptic seizure" (Haykal, p. lxx) is these narrations. The claim they put forward, knowing that such meaningful and poetic words cannot flow from the tongue of someone having an epileptic seizure, therefore falls into the category of propaganda. For those who analyze the objective situation, the correct proposition is: No meaning given to the words, concepts, and idioms in the verses uttered by the Meccan Arab Prophet, who spent the last 10 years of his life in Medina, is valid without corroborating it with the language, culture, and history of that society.

Prophethood is Not a Matter of Chronology and Systematics

Fatima Vasmaghi, a seminary-educated scholar with a doctorate in law, who naturally received a prison sentence under Khamenei's autocracy, claimed that Allah did not send prophets, but that some competent individuals found revelation through their own efforts. According to her, prophets were not sent chronologically. Those who encountered revelation in different places fulfilled the duty and obligation of conveying it. In other words, prophethood is not a systematic endeavor. For this reason, Ibn Sina compared prophets to philosophers and stated that while it is necessary to obey reason or religion to prevent social disorder, he equated the path of reason with the path of prophets (Ibn Sina, p. 240). Mulla Sadra also, after reminding that knowledge is to recognize universal truths, wrote that this is possible either through intellectual observation, which is the way of prophets, or through demonstration, which is the method of philosophers (Mulla Sadra, 1988: 2/303). Mulla Sadra stated that prophethood through revelation and apostleship and the philosophical path of thought are the same, and that those who consider these two to be contradictory fail to see the conformity of religious addresses with philosophical proofs (Mulla Sadra, 1981: 2/303).

The Prophet is the Messenger of Allah, Not the Messenger of Revelation

Returning to linguistic analysis, the luminaries of classical theory, since they argued that prophets were sent by Allah, gave the word "ba'th" in the verses the meaning of "sending" to fit the theory. This is despite the fact that this is not the primary meaning of the word, and in all other verses, they used the meaning of "resurrection."

We will go into detail in our relevant article, but the prophets' encounter with revelation is not a sending, but a resurrection; just like resurrection after death. With a person's resurrection and becoming a prophet, societies also get an opportunity for resurrection. Allamah Taleqani, in his tafsir Partaw-e az Qur'an, argues that prophets enabled societies to experience an intellectual leap, achieving in a few years intellectual development that would otherwise take a hundred years. If anyone, as a fan of the Matrix universe, has compared this awakening and resurrection to waking up from a simulation after taking the blue pill, I applaud them. Morpheus repeated the words of the prophets, didn't he: "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more."

There are individuals and societies that evaluate the Prophet's call to resurrection, and there are those who refuse to face the difficulty. For this reason, it is said, "Ignorance is bliss, knowing is pain." Remember how Cypher in Matrix 1, when he agreed to be an agent Smith's accomplice, said about the steak he was eating, "I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I've realized? Ignorance is bliss."

According to an alternative theory, the Prophet transformed the revelation he saw or heard into letters and words. Therefore, despite desperate attempts to give meanings that would never exist to preserve the classical theory, the "noble messenger" (rasulun karim) in Surah Al-Haqqah 69:40 is the Prophet: "Indeed, it [the Qur'an] is the word of a noble messenger, and it is not the word of a poet" (Al-Haqqah 69:40-41). Classical theory, aware of the contradiction of making Allah speak like a human, had to introduce a human-like, human-speaking "angel of revelation" as an intermediary. While the Prophet was already a messenger, there was yet another messenger mediating between him and Allah. According to classical theory, this intermediary being, the messenger of the messenger, converts the revelation into letters and words, and the prophet merely conveys it. Like a loudspeaker, in other words.

The officialization of the claim that revelation descended in letters and words formed the basis for sidelining the Prophet and giving Islam legal personality. The reason why the existing mushaf (the written Qur'an) is called "the Book of Allah" after it was compiled into a book and all manuscripts were burned during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Uthman, leaving only one official book, is the same.

However, we clearly understand from numerous verses of the Qur'an that the Prophet is not the messenger of revelation, but the messenger of Allah. Islam and revelation are the Prophet himself. Without him, there would be no Islam or revelation. Qur'an fundamentalists accuse traditional and official religious interpretations of prioritizing narrations over the Qur'an and say, like Caliph Umar, "The Qur'an is enough for us" (Bukhari 5669, Muslim 1637), but by dividing revelation into the Prophet and the Qur'an and making the Prophet the messenger of revelation, they arrive at the same result as the official religious interpretation.

The theoretical basis of the complaint by the religious and political elites of Islam, who lament that "young people are becoming deists," is Umar's "the Qur'an is enough for us" delusion, which he muttered while the Prophet was still alive, meaning while revelation was ongoing. This doctrine not only separated the Qur'an from the Prophet but also ignored the sources of other cultures, transforming Islam into an introverted society. Ibn Taymiyyah proudly recounts: "When Umar conquered Alexandria, he found numerous books from Rome there. It is written that he ordered them all to be burned and said: 'The Book of Allah is enough for us.'" (Ibn Taymiyyah, 17/41).

The issue of "houri," which is the subject of this article, and all other topics are related to the nature of revelation. This is the crossroads. The theological method that ignores language, culture, and anthropology does not help in understanding. For this reason, theological schools merely function as institutions for sanctifying the religious and training bureaucrats for the sacred.

The "Houri" Issue is About Not Seeing Women as Human

The houri issue is a woman's issue. It's about the objectification of women and gender-based categorization. Islam has no difference from Ancient Greece, Western Middle Ages, or the Enlightenment in this regard. In this religious culture, when one says "human," one thinks of a man. Women are de facto present. They are unwilling to accept what is de facto as a de jure personality. Because Islam is a masculine religion. Sunni Islam, especially, is completely, absolutely masculine. All the terrible narrations, like the one stating that a woman could not repay her husband's rights even if she licked him while he was covered from head to toe in disgusting pus and blood (Bukhari, 7725), are found in Sunni sources. Prayers closed to women, such as Friday and Eid prayers, are a distinctive mark of Sunni Islam. Nowadays, I see directional signs at the entrances of some mosques that say "women's mosque." They used to relegate women to the very back, to invisible nooks in the mosque; now they don't even let them into the mosque. They've built a shed outside the mosque and direct them there. Because they don't value women's prayers and acts of worship, just as they don't value women themselves.

The view of women in Twelver Shia Islam, a student of Sunnism, is not very different, even though some dissenting scholars have emerged from it. For example, Ayatollah Kamal Haydari, despite the reactions he received from traditional mollahs, strives to cleanse Islam and the Qur'an from misogynistic, anti-woman interpretations. For instance, while rejecting the claim that Surah An-Nisa 4:34 commands punishing and disciplining a disobedient wife by beating her, he says: "Do you give the meaning 'when you beat the earth' to the phrase 'idha darabtum fi'l-ard' (An-Nisa 4:101) in the Qur'an? No. You say 'when you go on a journey.' That is, when you leave home. Because the verb 'daraba' does not mean to beat, but to leave, to depart. What is said when workers go on strike? 'Idrab'; meaning to leave work, to cease work. What is said in An-Nisa 4:34 is clearly 'leave home.' The expression has nothing to do with beating or hitting. Since the mentality is based on narration, the verse is given the meaning of hitting. However, you should look at the Qur'an's own lexicon. Moreover, punishing women by beating them is against the logic of the Qur'an."

The Cause of Violence Against Women: Religious Culture Seeing Women as Ontologically Guilty

The cause of violence against women is a religious culture that views women as ontologically guilty. According to the narration in Tabari's Tafsir, Eve was punished with menstruation, difficulty in pregnancy, and labor pains because she caused the tree to bleed (Tabari, 1/275). This is the exact same description as in the Torah (Genesis, 3:16).

Since Eve seduced Adam and caused their expulsion from Paradise, she must compensate and atone for her fault. Therefore, she has the duty to satisfy men in Paradise, just as in this world. The presentation of young girls, women, houris, etc., in Paradise may seem like a reward for men, but it is actually a punishment for women. Women are always condemned to rape. Even in Paradise. The place of punishment being the vagina is frequently heard in vulgar derogatory and cursing phrases in masculine language. Indeed, in sentences that are not curses, the desire for rape is used instead of periods, commas, or exclamation points.

Burqa, Khimar, Chador, Headscarf: Symbols of the Obligation to Serve Men

Neither the burqa, the Taliban's uniform, nor the khimar, ISIS's uniform, nor the headscarf, chador, etc., of Islamists and sectarian tradesmen are for the benefit of women. That covering is the duty of not being seen by anyone other than the man to whom she is obligated to serve. It is the semiotics of a culture where a woman's preservation of her chastity means guarding a man's honor.

This misogynistic dark universe is even behind the pre-Islamic Arab tradition. Because in the period Islam called "Jahiliyya" (ignorance), the head covering of Arab women was a kind of crown, and slaves could not cover their heads (Torkashvand, p. 721, Wasail al-Shia 5890, Kafi 6/461). This also applied to men. Slave men could not use head coverings/turbans. So, the unisex head covering was a symbol of class distinction. Indeed, the reason for the advice on covering in Surah Al-Ahzab 33:73 ("so that they may be recognized and not harmed") was related to preventing women from being mistaken for slaves and subjected to disrespectful treatment while the slave/concubine status was in effect. In that primitive society where slave/concubine women, forbidden to cover their heads, were property that could be rented out to others (Ali, 5/560), it would naturally be a cause of harm to walk around with an uncovered head.

During his caliphate, Umar strongly reacted to slave women covering their heads, even if they were Muslim ("You cannot cover slaves and make them resemble free women," Bayhaqi, 3221), because he wanted to revive this old tradition. In fact, let's say he was resurrecting it, as the Prophet's revolution was to practically abolish the slave-free categories.

Rape as a Weapon on 7/10

In Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in addition to the execution of over 1,200 young, old, and child Israelis, it was reported that militants raped Israeli female hostages to punish the Israeli government. The report states, "Rape was used as a weapon." Suad Salih, an Al-Azhar professor (Dean of the Women's School), argued in a speech that was welcomed with joy in Gaza and the West Bank that rape of women is permissible in Islam to humiliate and demoralize the enemy.

In the etymological dictionary, the word "Philistinism" is conveyed as narrow-mindedness, vulgarity, and lack of aesthetics, citing historical records. The Romans named Judea "Palestine" as punishment for the Jewish freedom revolts, due to their labeling of the local people, whom they saw as crude, as such, and by entrusting their country to these crude people as punishment for the Jews. Thus, the sexual crimes committed against Israeli women in the October 7 attacks indeed lived up to the etymological description. Palestinians justify the act of rape by saying that Israeli soldiers also did similar things. They do not heed the warning that legitimizing an illegitimate act through reciprocity (retaliation in kind) will deprive them of the right to be considered victims and oppressed, as they expect to be seen as victims in any case.

Some Technical Information on the Concept of "Houri"

The commentaries that emerged two or three centuries after the Prophet's death attributed the word "hūr" in the Qur'an to the image of women that excited and inflamed the lust of Arab men. Similar to how "nuru'l-ayn" (light of the eye) and "qurratu'l-ayn" (delight of the eye) bring to mind children. The word "Qur'an" is not actually used in the verses in the sense of a book (mushaf) as it is today.

Probably in the eighth century, the campaign to encourage war by promising that "those who die in the path of Allah will be rewarded with houris in Paradise" (Jerrar, pp. 37-39) eventually became the sole meaning of the Qur'anic verses. No one bothered to check that the narrations on the subject were fabricated.

Mujahid (d. 721), Tabari (d. 923) (Jami' al-Bayan, 27/102), and Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) (Sifat al-Jannah, p. 110 et seq.) interpret "hurun 'ayn" as beautiful women with white faces and black eyes, and according to what they transmit from Ibn Abbas, the color metaphor – here light yellow – is related to views about the creation of paradisiacal virgins from saffron. In a narration attributed to Ibn Abbas (d. 687), it is stated that the houris in Paradise are made of four substances: musk, camphor, amber, and saffron (Ayni, 14/133).

Some argue that the word "houri" is derived from the root "khayr," meaning "surprising" (Tabari, 21/65, quoting Mujahid in his commentary on Surah Ad-Dukhan 44:54). The famous Arab poet and linguist Al-Asma'i (d. 831) wrote that he was unaware of any connection between this verb root and "eye," similar to the root "hawar" meaning "to return." In contrast, Arabic linguists propose that the word specifically expresses the intense contrast of white and black in the eyes of gazelles and cows (Farahidi's Kitab al-'Ayn under the entry "hūr"; also Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-'Arab and Ibn Faris's Mu'jam). For this reason, this description is thought to be unrelated to humans. Attributing it to women is a metaphor, a simile.

The Root Word 'Hūr' Unrelated to Houri

However, the word "hūr" in the lexicon primarily means "to change from an old state to a new form" (Mustafavi, 2/335). Indeed, neither translations nor commentaries interpret the verse "He thought that he would never return (lan yahūr)" (Al-Inshiqaq 84:14) as being related to "houri." While other verses, allegedly related to the topic, are translated as "houris" despite not containing the word "hūr," they do not concern themselves with the contradiction of why the obvious use of "hūr" here is not translated as "houri."

On the anthropological side of the issue, there is the fact that all the verses interpreted as referring to houris were recited in Mecca. This means that in Mecca, where pagan beliefs dominated, the Prophet's message focused on topics such as the unity and uniqueness of Allah, the testimony of natural phenomena to this, and the existence of life after death. When describing the afterlife, it was explained that much better and more beautiful, untouched, fresh versions of the products, waters, fruits, shades, and other blessings they enjoyed in this world, as well as other dazzling blessings they did not easily find in worldly life, would be offered. Among these, it is possible to understand from the lifestyle of that time that elements such as a sexual life with many young girls and young boys serving around them (implying homosexuality) held no meaning for the people addressed by the message.

In the afterlife, widespread shades, endless greenery, abundant leafy trees full of fruit, delicious juicy fruits, gurgling rivers, etc., would certainly have attracted the attention and interest of Meccans who could not put a price on finding shade under the scorching sun. But what value could laid-out beds, which were already part of their lives, hold? Why would sex with always-virgin girls be a reward to encourage them to become Muslim? What about young boys serving as cup-bearers? Perhaps it would make sense if the audience was the Ottoman culture of decadence, where there was a demand for prepubescent boys and homosexual literature flourished.

The Syriac Origin of the Word "Houri"

A hypothesis that aims to solve the enigma is that the word entered Arabic from Aramaic (Syriac) and means white grapes. In this case, "hurun 'ayn" in Surah Ad-Dukhan 44:54 and At-Tur 52:20 does not automatically mean "houris with wide, lovely eyes." From its Syro-Aramaic origin, the clear meaning of the idiom is "white, crystalline grapes" (Luxenberg, pp. 250-251).

Luxenberg argues that "hūr" means white grapes, and "ʿiyn" refers to the luster or sparkle of pearls. Thus, "hūru'l-ʿiyn" means large and sparkling grape clusters. This idiom has no relation to the description of fair-skinned, wide-eyed, beautiful houris. The verses pertain to food and drink in Paradise. Similarly, for instance, the phrase translated as "let them draw their head coverings over their bosoms" in Surah An-Nur 24:31 is translated as "let them fasten their waistbands tightly" due to the Syriac origin of the words. Fastening the waistband was reportedly a sign of chastity in Christian culture.

In Surah Al-Inshiqaq 84:14, when speaking of those who disbelieve in resurrection after death, the word used for "resurrection/return" (hūr) is on the measure of "ghūr" and means return, going back and forth. For this reason, those who went back and forth to Jesus Christ were called "Hawariyyun" (disciples). The word "mihwar" (axis), also used in Turkish and derived from the same root, refers to the central axle around which a wheel turns. Tafsir-i Numune points out that in its commentary on Al-Inshiqaq 84:14, the word comes from the Abyssinian language and relates that Ibn Abbas, who is cited as the source for the meaning of "houri," did not understand Surah At-Tur 52:20 (wa zawwajnahum bi hurin ʿiyn), but understood the meaning of the word when an Abyssinian person called out to his daughter "houri," meaning "come back." (Shirazi et al.) Therefore, the narrations attributed to Ibn Abbas regarding houris are invalid.

According to the claims of established Islam, the term "hurin ʿiyn" in Surah At-Tur 52:20 means "young virgins with large black eyes and silver skin." The phrase "zawwajnahum" in the verse is said to refer to marrying these girls. However, the verb "zawwajna" in the verse cannot mean marriage or wedlock, because the verb is made transitive with the preposition "bi." Yet, by rule, the verb is not formed this way when it is given the meaning of "nikah" (marriage contract).

According to lexicons, the primary meaning of "tazwij" is "to be near." In this context, the word would mean proximity to the astonishing blessings in Paradise.

In summary, the correct translation of the verse "hurin ʿiyn" in At-Tur 52:20, which means "dazzling return" after death, is as follows: The righteous in Paradise will recline on thrones arranged in rows, close to blessings with a dazzling resurrection/return.

The translation "they will be married to houris" is a forced, fabricated meaning derived from narrations.

Does the Qur'an Legitimate Wild Lust?

First and foremost, one must ask: Does the Qur'an legitimate wild lust and inflamed sexual fantasy such that it would use the word "hūr" in a sense that arouses sexual appetite? There is not a single verse in the Qur'an that supports this hypothesis and strange belief. Moreover, no hint can be shown to confirm the assumption that women are divided into those of dazzling beauty and those who are not, and that the most beautiful women await men in Paradise, while the less beautiful ones will not be found there.

The strange belief claiming that believing men will marry numerous houris, while women will not benefit from such a blessing, baselessly and without evidence claims that Allah discriminates against women in creation.

In alternative readings, expressions like "hūrun ʿiyn" (Ad-Dukhan 44:54) and "kāsirātu't-tarf" (Ar-Rahman 55:56) are considered to refer to genderless angels who are fascinated, gaze intently at, and serve the male and female inhabitants of Paradise, with absolutely no connection to sexuality. According to this approach, such attributions are claimed baselessly in Qur'anic commentaries. In fact, these commentaries even influence the meanings in lexicons in this direction (Resenani, pp. 13-33).

The Perception that Sees Fruits, Shade, and Meadows in Paradise as "Houris"

Surah Al-Waqi'ah speaks of the blessings that will be given as a reward to the people of Paradise. Widespread shades, fresh and untouched fruits, endless meadows, etc. All of them are feminine words. However, the Muslim mind, at some point in verses describing the beauty of nature, suddenly decides to interpret this Arabic grammatical rule as referring to women, and translates verse 34 as "raised couches," laying down a bed. This is because they will understand the following verse as "we recreated the houris" and will give the meaning of "virgins" to the word "untouched (abkāra)" used for natural blessings in verse 36. In verse 37, it will mean "devoted to their spouses, of the same age."

However, the word "farsh" in verse 34 is not a couch or bed, but a metaphor for vast, widespread meadows (Ahromi, "Huru'l-ʿIyn der Qur'an"). When talking about rivers, trees, shade, and fruits from the beginning, and all the words are feminine, and the style of expression continues as such, how does "virgin woman" suddenly emerge? From the fantasy of the Muslim perception obsessed with sexuality.

The same perception has no difficulty transitioning from the houri in the afterlife to pedophilia in this world.

The Perverse Commentary Legitimizing Marriage to a 6-Year-Old Girl

The pedophilic interpretation of the Qur'an legitimizes marriage to a child aged 9 or even 6. The source person for this belief is Aisha, daughter of the First Caliph Abdullah ibn Abi Quhafah (Bukhari 5134, Muslim 1422). According to her own statement, she divorced her previous marriage (al-Hafeni, p. 96, quoting Ibn Sa'd) and became the Prophet's wife. Despite the presence of other mothers, starting with Khadija, Sunnis limited the title "Mother of Believers" to her and made her the sole fundamental source of Islam.

Aisha claimed she was 6 years old when she married the Prophet, which is known not to be true. Without going into detail, according to calculations based on the age difference with her elder sister and other circumstances, she was 19 or 21 years old. Her claiming to be 6 was apparently to support her boast of being the "only virgin wife." A small retouch was also made to her marriage to Jubayr ibn Mut'im before the Prophet: she went to Jubayr's house, but returned to her father's house as a virgin before the marriage was consummated. The Sunni slogan is: The Prophet did not marry anyone else as a virgin except Aisha (Ibnu'l-Jawzi, 1/9).

Sunnis do not explain how this was possible. If her father Abu Bakr did not marry her off, but only promised her, why did she stay in Jubayr's house, for how long did she live in that house, at what age did this event occur, if she was married, how could the Prophet propose to a married woman, etc., these questions remain unanswered.

In the narration in Ibn Sa'd, the sentence "She divorced him and married the Prophet" is clearly stated (Ibn Sa'd, 10/59). In Imam Shafi'i's al-Umm, in the section on "waiving dowry," it is narrated from Jubayr's son Muhammad: "My father married a woman, but divorced her before sexual intercourse took place, yet he paid her dowry" (Shafi'i, 6/191). Jubayr did not give the woman's name, but unless he made a habit of marrying and divorcing without sexual intercourse, "a woman" mentioned in the sentence must be Aisha. It seems that Jubayr also colluded with Abu Bakr and Aisha in historical writing. However, over the past thousand years, no one among Sunnis has asked: Why did Jubayr marry and not have sexual intercourse, what was he waiting for, were there others who behaved this way in marriages at that time?

When the issue is about cheering in the supporter stands, logical errors, contradictions, and the reality of the situation do not attract anyone's interest or attention.

Yet, marrying a 6 or 9-year-old girl to much older men clearly contradicts the Qur'an. This is because "rushd" (maturity) in Surah An-Nisa 4:6 is not biological but mental; it refers to the power of reasoning. "Reaching the age of marriage" is also related to this. First and foremost, the name of the surah is "An-Nisa," meaning "women," not "girls" or "young girls."

The Pedophilic Tafsir of the Qur'an

According to the pedophilic commentary of the Qur'an, in An-Naba 78:33, "companions of equal age with budding breasts" are promised to men in Paradise. This interpretation is a continuation of the houri fantasy. Women, again, receive nothing. Muhammad Asad objected to this interpretation by saying "splendid, harmonious spouses." Mustafa İslamoğlu translated it as "dazzling spouses of equal rank." Almost all other translations in Turkish and other languages translate the verse with a sexual motivation.

However, the Süleymaniye Foundation's translation offers an alternative: "plump and at the same time harvested fruits." The reason for this translation is that the previous verse (32nd verse) mentions "gardens and grapes." Continuing this, in verse 33, which says "kawāʿib wa atrāb," they relate "atrāb" to the root "turāb" (earth), giving it the meaning of "harvested at the same time," both referring to being of the same age (tārib) and being connected to the earth (tarib), thus combining the meanings.

When they translated "uruben etrab" in Al-Waqi'ah 56:37 as "spouses/mates who are lovingly devoted and of equal age," they had to translate "kawāʿib etrāb" in An-Naba 78:33 as "companions of equal age with budding breasts." But if one is to be of the same age as girls whose breasts are just developing, how will the exciting pedophilia occur? Yet, the hysterical desire is related to sexual intercourse with tiny girls.

The profile in the fantastic world of the person nicknamed "Abu Hurayra" (d. 678) will cheer up those whose enthusiasm is dampened by being of the same age as small girls in Paradise: The people of Paradise will enter Paradise as beardless, hairless, perfectly white, curly-haired, kohl-eyed, thirty-three-year-old boys, 40 meters tall and 6 meters wide, similar to the creation of Adam (Ibn Abi Shaybah, 18/438, 35140). They are "boys" and "of the same age," but anatomically, they are more than adult in terms of height and width.

Lovingly Devoted Spouses of Equal Age, or Happiness Worthy of Rank?

The word "Kawaʿib," the plural of "Ka'b," used for the cubic protrusion "Ka'bah" on Earth (and the protrusion on the foot in the ablution verse in Al-Ma'idah 5:6, the intermediate cuneiform), has been given the meanings of budding, maturing, protruding, becoming prominent (Ismail, p. 148). It is explicitly clear that the meaning of "companions of equal age with budding breasts" (some say "hardened") for the phrase "wa kawāʿib wa atrābā" (وَكَوَاعِبَ اَتْرَابًاۙ) in An-Naba 78:33 is entirely based on sexual fantasy. This is how the established Muslim mind works. Yet, such a motivation is not discussed in any of the hundreds of verses that speak of Paradise and life there, and the verses given the meaning of "small girls with budding breasts," "houris," and "prepubescent boys" do not exceed a few.

It is very clear that giving the meaning of "girl with budding breasts" to the word "Kawaʿib" has no relation to Qur'anic Arabic (as is the case with the word "houri"), but is based on the meaning the word acquired later. The situation defined by "Kawaʿib" is actually cubic (Ka'bah) geometry, a symbol of perfection. This is why the giant cubic business center currently being built in Riyadh is called "mukaab."

There is no answer to the question of where the commentators derived the meaning of "spouses/mates who are lovingly devoted and of equal age" for the phrase "uruben etrab" in Al-Waqi'ah 56:37. This is because the root of the word "uruben" cannot be shown to have any remote connection to spouse/mate, love, etc. For example, Arabs used to call Friday "Yawm al-ʿArubah" before Islam (Ibn Durayd, 1/319). This is because one of the original meanings of the word is joy, happiness, amusement, rest/tranquility (Ibn Faris, 4/299), and it is the festival day of the week. There is not even a small clue in the meaning of the word that could establish a connection with women or love. It is unclear when the association with women first occurred. For example, "al-mar'atu'l-ʿarūb" is given as an example, meaning "joyful or cheering woman." After some time, the word became exclusively about women, and the verses were given the meaning of "lovingly devoted wives of equal age."

In Al-Waqi'ah 56:35, where it says "We have created them with a special creation," as soon as they saw the feminine pronoun "hunna" (they) at the end of the word, they affixed the label "women." In the translation of Ali Fikri Yavuz, the meaning is even more exaggerated: "We have rejuvenated elderly women in this world and created them with a brand new creation in Paradise." However, the only reason for the feminine pronoun at the end of the word is that the blessings listed in the previous verses (fruits, etc.) are feminine words. It is simply a requirement of the language rule. What the verse actually says clearly is: We created them (the blessings) with a special creation. We made all of them perfectly fresh (bikr). They are the cause of happiness and joy, fitting and worthy of the station of the people of Paradise.

Let's Draw a Conclusion

No other religion or belief offers the promise of young girls as a reward in the afterlife. Moreover, there is no religion other than Islam that encourages the zeal to self-detonate in markets, places of worship, or public squares, killing men, women, and children, to achieve that reward. The fundamental problem of Islam is a religiosity that finds no shame in this.

This issue will not be resolved without declaring the fabricated source that attributes pedophilia to the Prophet as false. Likewise, as long as the pedophilic and misogynistic commentary of the Qur'an is not considered null and void, ill-intentioned individuals will have no difficulty finding material.

For an outsider to Islam, the question is who represents the religion. Is it Ibn Sina, the prince of physicians, Farabi, the master of philosophers, Khwarizmi, the inventor of zero, Hamadani, the master of gnosis, or are they remnants of the Age of Ignorance who have religiousized their sexual fantasies? The religion they represent is a total of bohemian desires.

On one side, there are eccentrics eager to be prophets of scientific fairy tales, and on the other, perverted sectarian representatives obsessed with houri orgy fantasies. In between, a handful of hopeless, unhappy, joyless souls struggling for reason, justice, common sense, conscience, morality, and truth.

Sayyid Qutb wrote Milestones, Maududi Four Core Concepts of the Qur'an, and Shariati Religion vs. Religion, at a time when Islam had gone astray; when principles, standards, and rules ceased to exist. They explained ilah (deity), rabb (lord), ibadah (worship), and din (religion) from scratch. By limiting apostasy to leaving, breaking away, or separating from religion, and moreover, by making religion a static noun instead of a dynamic adjective, the area of lawful and unlawful for sacredness becomes an utterly comfortable zone. However, there is also apostasy from morality, which is worse, more disastrous, and more destructive than apostasy from religion.

Examples of sociopathy becoming normalized, habitual, and mainstream are endless. Society is collapsing, decaying, perishing. Morality, as a principle and value, is losing its authority. This is a collective photograph of madness, loss of consciousness, and dehumanization.

Translated by Gemini

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