Although the topic implies a single question, in this series of blogs, I want to address a few more questions that are related to this one. Answering these questions may help us understand some of the explanations in the Quran about the afterlife, and they may shed light on some controversial topics.
The first question to study is whether men's success automatically translates to the success of their wives. Stated differently, if a man is judged by God to enter the heaven, does his wife accompany him?
"The dwellers of Paradise on that day will enjoy themselves. They and their spouses - in shade, reclining on adorned couches." (36/55-56)
"Enter Paradise with your spouses in delight." (43/70)
The pronoun they and you in these verses are in the male form, which can lead to an interpretation involving the men who deserve heaven and their wives. The quick solution to this is that a group of mixed gender is referred to with male pronouns according to the Arabic grammar. So, instead of an exclusive privilege to men, through this grammatical perspective, we see that both men and women who deserve heaven are going to enter there with their spouses. Although this grammatical solution resolves one aspect of the problem, the main problem is still there. That is, how come a person enters heaven by the deeds of another? Plus, we have counter evidence from the Quran!
"Allah sets forth, for an example to the Unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut: they were (respectively) under two of our righteous servants, but they were false to their (husbands), and they profited nothing before Allah on their account, but were told: 'Enter you the Fire along with (others) that enter!' And Allah sets forth, as an example to those who believe, the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: 'O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to You, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds, and save me from those that do wrong'" (66/10-11)
So, it is clear that spouses are judged on their own, and the sucess of one does not translate to the success of the other. Then, how are we going to interpret the first verses that imply the opposite?
One suggestion could be that the spouses mentioned in these verses actually refer to the houris and not the spouses in this world. However, one, the houris are already in the heaven, they don't enter there. Two, if we go with this answer, then the descriptions of heaven in the Quran become exclusively men-centered! As will be seen in the later episodes, there are many other verses that mention the houris explicitly with their various properties. So, on top of those, if we interpret the term spouse here as the houris, then either we are going to have to accept that Quran's primary addressees are the men, or we are going to claim that women are also going to be rewarded with the houris, which brings other questions!
In short, the two verses mentioned in the beginning pose a question about the meaning of the spouses of the people of the heaven, and it cannot be answered straightforward.
"The dwellers of Paradise on that day will enjoy themselves. They and their spouses - in shade, reclining on adorned couches." (36/55-56)
"Enter Paradise with your spouses in delight." (43/70)
In Arabic (Spanish and some other languages), the male pronouns are used to describe people regardless of gender. This can be seen in the literature of respective languages. So this point is only criticized by those who are ignoramus to the matters of linguistics.
ReplyDeleteThe matter of houris is a tricky one. I would love to hear your interpretation in the following chapter. And then I'll give my opinion :)
As you said, the gender of the pronoun is a relatively superficial issue. But there are more essential matters as I pointed at. I will share my thoughts as I progress and finalize my research.
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