for every kind of fruit, in security. They will not taste death therein except the first death, and He will have protected them from the punishment of Hellfire.”

He brings together for them a beautiful dwelling, safety there from everything unpleasant, fruits and rivers, fine clothing, perfect companionship as they face one another, complete delight with fair maidens with large, beautiful eyes, and the ability to call for every kind of fruit, secure from its running out, causing harm, or having adverse consequences. Finally, He informs them that they will taste no death there.

[Surah al-Dukhān (44): verse 54]
“Thus it will be. And We will pair them with fair maidens with large, beautiful eyes.” (54)

Hūr is the plural of hawrā’: a young, beautiful, fair-skinned woman with intensely black eyes. Zayd ibn Aslam said: “A hawrā’ is one who dazzles the gaze.” ‘Īn means women with beautiful eyes. Mujāhid said: “A hawrā’ is one who dazzles the gaze through the delicacy of her skin and the purity of her complexion.” Al-Hasan said: “A hawrā’ has intensely white whites and intensely black pupils.”

There is disagreement over the word’s derivation. Ibn ‘Abbās said: “In Arabic usage, hūr means fair women.” Qatāda likewise said: “Hūr means fair women.” Muqātil said: “Hūr means women with fair faces.” Mujāhid said: “The hūr ‘īn are women who dazzle the gaze. The marrow of their shins is visible through their clothing, and an onlooker can see his face reflected in the liver of one of them as in a mirror, owing to the delicacy of her skin and the purity of her complexion.” This resemblance between the words is coincidental; the word is not derived from hayra (bewilderment). The basic sense of hawar is whiteness, and tahwīr means whitening. The correct view is that hūr derives from hawar in the eyes: the intense whiteness of their whites together with the deep blackness of their pupils. Thus, it encompasses both qualities.

In al-Jawharī’s al-Sihāh: “Hawar is intense whiteness in the eye together with intense blackness. A woman is described as hawrā’ when her hawar is clearly apparent.” Abū ‘Amr said: “Hawar means that the whole eye is black, like the eyes of gazelles and wild cattle. There is no hawar among human beings; women are only called hūr ‘īn because they are likened to gazelles and wild cattle.” Al-Asma‘ī said: “I do not know what hawar in the eyes means.”

I say: Abū ‘Amr differed from the lexicographers concerning the word’s derivation and traced hawar back