Paradise (al-janna; literally, ‘garden’) has two aspects. First, it is the garden that was created for Adam and his wife, and from which they were evicted after falling prey to Satan’s temptation. Second, it is the abode of righteous believers after the Day of Judgement at the end of time, given to them in compensation for their good deeds. The first is a paradise lost at the beginning of human history, the second a projected eschatological place of Utopian and perpetual bliss at the end of human history. The rhetorical strategy of describing eternal bliss in the aims at winning the hearts of those who do not yet believe and fortifying in their convictions those who already believe. Eschatological paradise is, in contradistinction to Adam’s paradise, depicted with a vivid wealth of sensual details, and each space is usually clearly identified.
Adam’s paradise
The tells us little about the paradise of Adam and his (in the ) nameless wife. This paradise is the space of sinless humanity and the setting for two main events, on which the text concentrates. God announces to the angels his intention to create Adam as a vicegerent (khalifa) on earth (2.30ff.; 38.71ff.). God creates Adam from clay and teaches Adam ‘all the names’ (2.31). Then one of the angels (Iblis) rebels against God’s command to bow before Adam (2.34). The does not specify when in this order of events Adam’s wife is created. Some commentators believe that Adam’s wife was created before he entered paradise, which could mean that Adam’s creation and the rebellion of Iblis did not take place there. The different versions of the story of Adam’s fall concur in that the temptation of Adam and his wife takes place in paradise. (The main elements of this story are shared by Jewish scripture (Genesis 2:8–3:24), but there are many important differences in the details.) When Adam and his wife are evicted from paradise and ‘go down’ to earth (2.36; 7.24–25; 20.123), human history begins—outside paradise. We learn little about the garden except that there were trees with fruit in it, among them ‘the tree of eternity’ (20.120). The exact relationship between Adam’s garden on the one hand and paradise in the hereafter on the other is not dealt with in the theology tends to teach that paradise has eternally existed or that it had an existence outside of time.
Eschatological paradise
The topography of paradise
In contrast to the paucity of descriptive detail concerning Adam’s pre-historic ‘garden’, we find a wealth of information about paradise after the Day of Judgement. Al-janna is the most frequent name of this abode of the elect, who are called ‘the dwellers of the garden’ (ashab al-janna) (46.14). This paradise is a Utopian counter-world to normal human life on the Arabian peninsula, where garden stands against desert, abundance of water against drought, shade against insufferable heat, a life of luxury and peace against hardship and fear. The gates of paradise are guarded by angels (39.73), its breadth ‘is as heaven and earth’ (3.133). In many respects this paradise is also a counterspace to hell. The spaces of paradise and hell lie next to each other (57.13). The topographies of hell and paradise are, to a large extent, symmetrically constructed.
The expression ‘the gardens of Eden’ (jannat) corresponds to the biblical gan Eden (Genesis 2:15). But the never uses this expression for Adam’s garden (13.23 etc.). Another, much rarer word for ‘paradise’ is firdaws (18.107; 23.11)—ultimately a loan from an Iranian language, which, via the Greek paradeisos, was taken over into most European languages.
The pleasures of paradise
Paradise has an eternally moderate climate (76.13), shade is everlasting, grapes and pomegranates abound, rivers of wine, milk, honey and fresh water flow through it (47.15), recalling the four rivers of paradise in Genesis 2.10–14. The believers can call for every kind of fruit (44.55), they receive ‘what their souls desire’ (43.71), they are clad in silk and brocade, they wear golden bracelets and recline upon ‘close-wrought couches’ (56.15). Immortal youths offer flesh and fowl, they serve wine out of ‘goblets, ewers and a cup from the spring’ (56.18).
The virgins of paradise (houris)
The word huri is derived from the Arabic adjective hur or hur ‘in, both plurals meaning ‘women, who have wide eyes with a marked contrast of intense white and deep black’. This is a mark of beauty. Believers, in reward for their righteousness, will be wed to houris: ‘We [God] shall espouse them [pl. masc.] to wideeyed houris’ (44.54); ‘Perfectly We formed them [pl. fern.], perfect, and We made them spotless virgins, chastely amorous, like of age for the Companions of the Right’ (56.35–38). They are ‘like hidden pearls’ (56.23), ‘maidens restraining their glances, untouched before them by any man or jinn’ (55.56).
Sexuality, therefore, is like eating and drinking an essential and integral part of the anthropocentric imagery of paradise. Sexuality is always consummated, never postponed. The sensuality of the paradise and especially the houris were a classical topos of Christian anti-Islamic polemics. Muslim theology and piety developed the ideas further. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) taught that sexuality in this world was but a faint prefiguration of the bliss of paradise. Speculations about the number of houris assigned to the Prophets and about the physical aspects of their eternal virginity coalesced with the idea that the Muslim martyr should be inspired in Holy War by the image of the houris. This kind of exegesis has been rekindled by militant Muslim groups in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in connection with suicide attacks. On the other hand, there is an old exegetical tradition that regards the houris and other parts of the description of paradise as metaphors or allegories. According to this tradition, the descriptions of paradise were—like those of hell—not to be taken literally. Some modern and feminist exegetes, bothered by the predominantly male character of the bliss of paradise, have proposed that pious women can expect male houris.
The origin of the idea of the virgins of paradise has been widely debated in non-Muslim scholarship. Zoroastrian ideas, a misunderstanding of Syriac patristic texts, and Christian devotional paintings of women have been suggested as possible sources. Luxenberg (2000) again took up the Syriac hypothesis, arguing that the houris owe their existence to a misunderstanding of an Aramaic word for grapes.
Interaction between God and man in paradise
God greets the elect in paradise with the word ‘peace’ (36.58). There they are ‘in the presence of a king, omnipotent’ (54.55); they live in God’s good pleasure, which is greater than gardens and rivers (9.72). The verses ‘Upon that day faces shall be radiant, gazing upon their Lord’ (75.22–23) have, by some commentators, been interpreted as confirmation that the elect would see God in paradise. Other exegetes countered by referring to the verse: ‘The eyes attain Him not’ (6.103). This was a famous point of dispute between and orthodox thinkers. In general, the description of God’s interaction with the believers in paradise pales in comparison to the vivid anthropocentric images of sensual delight mentioned above.
References and further reading
Afsaruddin, A. (2002) ‘Garden’, EQ, Vol. 2, 282–7.
al-Azmeh, A. (1995) ‘Rhetoric for the Senses: A consideration of Muslim paradise narratives’, JAL 26:215–31.
El-Saleh, S. (1971) La vie future selon le Coran, Paris: Vrin.
Jarrar, M. (2002) ‘Houris’, EQ, Vol. 2, 456–7.
Luxenberg, C. (2000) Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache, Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 221ff.
aims at winning the hearts of those who do not yet believe and fortifying in their convictions those who already believe. Eschatological paradise is, in contradistinction to Adam’s paradise, depicted with a vivid wealth of sensual details, and each space is usually clearly identified.
tells us little about the paradise of Adam and his (in the 
) nameless wife. This paradise is the space of sinless humanity and the setting for two main events, on which the text concentrates. God announces to the angels his intention to create Adam as a vicegerent (khalifa) on earth (2.30ff.; 38.71ff.). God creates Adam from clay and teaches Adam ‘all the names’ (2.31). Then one of the angels (Iblis) rebels against God’s command to bow before Adam (2.34). The 
does not specify when in this order of events Adam’s wife is created. Some commentators believe that Adam’s wife was created before he entered paradise, which could mean that Adam’s creation and the rebellion of Iblis did not take place there. The different versions of the 
story of Adam’s fall concur in that the temptation of Adam and his wife takes place in paradise. (The main elements of this story are shared by Jewish scripture (Genesis 2:8–3:24), but there are many important differences in the details.) When Adam and his wife are evicted from paradise and ‘go down’ to earth (2.36; 7.24–25; 20.123), human history begins—outside paradise. We learn little about the garden except that there were trees with fruit in it, among them ‘the tree of eternity’ (20.120). The exact relationship between Adam’s garden on the one hand and paradise in the hereafter on the other is not dealt with in the 
theology tends to teach that paradise has eternally existed or that it had an existence outside of time.
information about paradise after the Day of Judgement. Al-janna is the most frequent name of this abode of the elect, who are called ‘the dwellers of the garden’ (ashab al-janna) (46.14). This paradise is a Utopian counter-world to normal human life on the Arabian peninsula, where garden stands against desert, abundance of water against drought, shade against insufferable heat, a life of luxury and peace against hardship and fear. The gates of paradise are guarded by angels (39.73), its breadth ‘is as heaven and earth’ (3.133). In many respects this paradise is also a counterspace to hell. The spaces of paradise 
) corresponds to the biblical gan Eden (Genesis 2:15). But the 
never uses this expression for Adam’s garden (13.23 etc.). Another, much rarer 
word for ‘paradise’ is firdaws (18.107; 23.11)—ultimately a loan from an Iranian language, which, via the Greek paradeisos, was taken over into most European languages.
paradise and especially the houris were a classical topos of Christian anti-Islamic polemics. Muslim theology and piety developed the 
ideas further. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) taught that sexuality in this world was but a faint prefiguration of the bliss of paradise. Speculations about the number of houris assigned to the Prophets and about the physical aspects of their eternal virginity coalesced with the idea that the Muslim martyr should be inspired in Holy War by the image of the houris. This kind of exegesis has been rekindled by militant Muslim groups in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in connection with suicide attacks. On the other hand, there is an old exegetical tradition that regards the houris and other parts of the 
description of paradise as metaphors or allegories. According to this tradition, the descriptions of paradise were—like those of hell—not to be taken literally. Some modern and feminist exegetes, bothered by the predominantly male character of the bliss of paradise, have proposed that pious women can expect male houris.
houris owe their existence to a misunderstanding of an Aramaic word for grapes. 
and orthodox thinkers. In general, the description of God’s interaction with the believers in paradise pales in comparison to the vivid anthropocentric images of sensual delight mentioned above.
