THE NARRATIVITY Of THE ḤŪRʿĪN: THE DYNAMICS OF QURʾ NIC REINTERPRETATION IN CONSTRUCTING THE ḤŪRʿĪN OF ISLAMIC PARADISE IN THE POST TRANSLATION ERA

Abstract

The twenty-first century witnessed an enormous revival of interest in Islamic studies particularly in the Qurʾānic reinterpretation that is deviated from the inherited tradition. Following a post-structuralist approach, this dissertation investigates the endeavors of scholars who have engaged in the reinterpretation of a very important concept in Islam: the Ḥūrʿīn ( ,(حُورٌ عِینٌ ‘houris’ in English —— classically interpreted as the female-like creatures awarded to male believers in the Islamic Paradise (al-Jannah), and often rendered as virgins of paradise. The classical interpretation of the Ḥūrʿīn remains to the vast majority of Muslims a confession of the profound power of Islam’s aesthetic appeal: a man’s ultimate desire of a feminine companionship in the afterlife. The novel reinterpretations of the Ḥūrʿīn, however, offer space to think through the nature and logic behind these creatures’ existence in al-Jannah and challenge the classical notion that has been widely circulated and constructed in the minds of Muslims worldwide. Drawing on narrative theory, this research attempts to answer the question of why the Ḥūrʿīn has been revisited and reinterpreted differently in the twenty-first century. This dissertation employs discourse analysis to examine two reinterpretations of the Ḥūrʿīn, which appear to be motivated by the inherent ambiguity of the concept and the narrative desire to provide different narratives to the Islamic Paradise. These reinterpretations attempt to frame new narratives compatible with the conceptual narratives of two distinct approaches towards the Islamic Scripture: the revisionists and the reformists. The dissertation contributes to the ongoing research into dominance and resistance of Qurʾānic reinterpretations amongst Muslims and concludes by recommending avenues for further research in the area.