no one other than their husbands.” Ādam said: Al-Mubārak ibn Fadālah «1» narrated to us, from al-Hasan, who said: “They restrict their gaze to their husbands and desire no one else. By Allah, they neither flaunt their beauty nor look about.”
Mansūr reported from Mujāhid: “They devote their eyes, hearts, and selves exclusively to their husbands and desire no one else.” In Sa‘īd’s commentary, Qatādah said: “They restrict their gaze to their husbands and desire no one else.”
As for atrāb (“equal in age”), it is the plural of tirb, meaning a person’s age-mate.
Abū ‘Ubaydah and Abū Ishāq said: “They are peers, all of the same age.” Ibn ‘Abbās and the other Quran commentators said: “They are all of the same age, born at the same time, thirty-three years old.” Mujāhid said: “Atrāb means alike.” Abū Ishāq said: “They are at the height of youth and beauty. A person’s peer and contemporary is called his tirb because he touched the earth’s dust at the same time as him.”
The point of stating that they are all of the same age is that none of them are elderly women whose beauty has faded, nor young girls unable to bear intercourse. This is unlike the males, among whom are young boys who serve as attendants.
There is disagreement over the referent of the pronoun in His words, “In them.”
One group said that it refers to the two gardens and all the palaces, chambers, and tents they contain.