These narrations do not contradict what has been reliably recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections: “I looked into the Fire and saw that most of its inhabitants were women” (1). It is quite possible that women will constitute the majority of the people of Paradise while also being the majority of the people of Hell—or that they will at first be more numerous in Hell, then those of them whom intercessions rescue will leave the Fire and enter Paradise until they become the greater part of its dwellers. Allah knows best.

We have already cited Aḥmad’s report, through the chain of Khilās from Abū Rāfiʿ from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The believer will have two wives, the marrow of whose shanks is visible from behind their garments” (2).

Darrāj, from Abū al-Haytham, from Abū Saʿīd, transmitted—raising it to the Prophet ﷺ—the following: “A man from the people of Paradise will recline for seventy years before he moves. Then a woman will approach, tap his shoulders, and he will look at her face and behold his own image in her cheek, clearer than in a mirror. The least pearl she wears will illuminate the expanse between East and West. She will greet him with salām; he will return the greeting and ask, ‘Who are you?’ She will reply, ‘I am the increase.’ She will be wearing seventy garments, the innermost of which is like Nuʿmān of Ṭūbā, yet his gaze will pierce them until he sees the marrow of her shin behind all of them.” Aḥmad recorded it in his Musnad (3).

Imām Aḥmad also said: Abū al-Naḍr told us; Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah narrated to us, from Ḥumayd, from Anas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “A morning or an evening spent in the path of Allah is better than this world and all it contains. The space of one of your bows—or even the spot a whip occupies—in Paradise is better than this world and all it contains. If a woman from among the women of Paradise were to look down upon the earth, she would fill the space between the two with fragrance; everything between them would become pleasant, and the veil upon her head would be better than this world and all it contains.” Al-Bukhārī narrated it from Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar and Abū Isḥāq, both from Ḥumayd, from Anas, with the same wording. We have already quoted the ḥadith in full at the beginning of the description of Paradise. Al-Bukhārī also records: “If a woman from the women of Paradise were to peer down upon the earth, she would illuminate what lies between them, fill it with fragrance, and the veil upon her head would be better than this world and all it contains” (4).

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: Bishr ibn al-Walīd related to us; Saʿīd ibn Zarbi related to us, from ʿAbd al-Malik al-Jawni, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “If a ḥawrāʾ (maid of Paradise) were to extend her hand between heaven and earth, all creatures would be captivated by her beauty. If she were to show her veil, the sun, compared with her splendor, would be like a dim wick giving no light. And if she were to reveal her face, the radiance of her beauty would illuminate everything between heaven and earth” (5).