Why Allah Mentions Hoor For Men?
The Quran was not revealed in a vacuum; it was a conversation with a specific people at a specific time (7th-century Arabs). That society was intensely patriarchal and driven by very specific, often crude, physical desires. To pull those men toward a higher moral ground, God used the language of their own desires. Think of it as a “pedagogical tool.” If you want to encourage a child to study, you promise them a toy they love, not a retirement fund they don’t understand. For those men, “Hoor” and “gardens” were the “toys” of their time—symbols used to draw them away from a life of sin. But the eternal truth behind the metaphor isn’t “male lust”; it is the promise of complete soul-satisfaction. What are the “Hoor,” really? Hoor are not necessarily a different “species” or a “harem” of women. The word itself is a description of purity and beauty. In Paradise, everything—the water, the air, the companions—is “Hoor” (pure/pristine). When the Quran describes “companions with beautiful eyes,” it is using the imagery that the men of that time found most comforting and beautiful to describe a higher state of companionship. It isn’t saying women are rewards; it’s saying that in Paradise, the desire for companionship—which is one of the deepest human needs—will be fulfilled in its most perfect, pure form. Why isn’t the same mentioned for women? This is where the “Language of the First Addressees” becomes crucial. In the 7th century, the social structure was such that women’s desires were private, and their “fulfillment” was often tied to the status and success of their household.If the Quran had explicitly detailed “male rewards” for women in that specific social climate, it would have been seen as scandalous and would have blocked the message from being heard at all. However, God established a universal law that overrides the local metaphors: “And there will be therein all that the souls could desire, and all that the eyes could delight in.” (Surah Az-Zukhruf 43:71) This verse is the guarantee for every woman. If your soul desires exclusive loyalty, then that is what “fulfillment” means for you. God doesn’t say “I will give you what a 7th-century man wants.” He says He will give you what your soul wants. When people say “you won’t feel jealousy,” they make it sound like God will “brainwash” you to accept something you hate. That is a terrible way to describe it.A better way to think about it is that jealousy is a product of scarcity and insecurity. We feel jealous in this world because we are afraid of losing our place, being replaced, or not being enough. In Paradise, that “Human Construct” of insecurity is gone. You won’t “be forced to accept” a husband having other companions; rather, the entire nature of the relationship will be so deep, so fulfilling, and so “exclusive” in its emotional quality that the very concept of “sharing” or “competition” becomes a logical impossibility. Your desire for a loyal husband is a reflection of a Divine Attribute—Al-Wadud (The Loving/Affectionate). Lust is a biological drive; Loyalty is a spiritual virtue. There is no way a biological drive is “superior” to a spiritual virtue in the eyes of the Creator. The descriptions of Hoor were a “mercy” for men who needed that specific motivation to stay away from the fire. But the promise of peace is the mercy for women who have suffered through a world that often lacked loyalty. In Paradise, you aren’t an “object” in someone else’s reward. You are the subject of your own joy. If a “loyal, one-on-one connection” is what defines Paradise for you, then God’s promise to fulfill the “desire of the soul” means that is exactly what you will have.
The Quran was not revealed in a vacuum; it was a living dialogue with 7th-century Arabs. In that society, the “problem” that needed immediate solving was the Arabian Man. He was the one burying his daughters alive, starting tribal wars, and treating women as inherited property. The language is “weighted” toward the male perspective because men were the ones who needed the most fixing. The Quran is a dialogue aimed at dismantling the toxic ego of that era. When it speaks to men about “lowering their gaze” or “treating wives with kindness,” it is because men were the ones failing at those things. The frequency of address to men isn’t a sign of favoritism; it is a sign of reprimand and regulation. To change that specific group, God spoke in their idioms, their poetry, and addressed their specific physical desires. There is a vital distinction between Legal Commands and Illustrative Descriptions. When it comes to the “Law”—worship, ethics, and rewards—the Quran is explicitly gender-neutral. It says, “I never waste the work of any worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another” (3:195). In the eyes of God, there is no “male soul” or “female soul”—there is only the Nafs (the Self). When describing the “joy” of Paradise, the Quran uses Tashbih (metaphor). It paints a picture using the “luxury items” of that era—flowing rivers, silk, and “Hoor” (pure companions). These are pointers, not the destination. They were “hooks” used to pull 7th-century men away from sin. For a desert-dweller, these were the height of desire. They are not “laws” women must submit to; they are illustrations meant to inspire the people of that time. The Quran “risks” this misunderstanding because it trusts the human intellect to distinguish between the Local (Arabian culture) and the Universal (Divine Justice). If the “illustrations” of the 7th century—like multiple companions or specific physical rewards—don’t appeal to a woman in 2026, the Quran provides a master key that supersedes all metaphors: “And there will be therein all that the souls could desire, and all that the eyes could delight in.” (41:31) This is the “Great Equalizer.” If a woman’s soul desires exclusive loyalty and a deep, one-on-one connection, then that is what “fulfillment” means for her. God isn’t catering to “male lust”; He is catering to human nature, and human nature varies. In a place of “No Pain,” your heart will not be broken. You won’t be “forced” to accept something that hurts you, because a place where you are unhappy is, by definition, not Paradise. Historically, women like Umm Salama (RA) asked this exact question: “Why are we not mentioned as much as men?” In response, Allah revealed verses like 33:35, which explicitly list “Muslim men and Muslim women, believing men and believing women…” to settle the matter forever. The “male-centric” language is a linguistic shortcut of the Arabic language (where the masculine plural includes the feminine), but the Divine Intent is 100% balanced. The Quran mentions men more because men were the ones standing in the way of the Truth. Back then females were the victims themselves. It was a battle to change them. The “weight” of the language reflects the intensity of the struggle at the time, not a Divine preference for one gender over the other. In Paradise, you are not an “object” in someone else’s reward. You are the subject of your own joy. If the 7th-century “male version” of Jannah doesn’t appeal to you, it simply will not be your version. Your Jannah will be exactly what your soul loves.