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Full Idea
All who dwell in heaven shall recline on couches lined with thick brocade, and within their reach will hang the fruits of gardens; they shall dwell with bashful virgins whom neither men nor jinnee will have touched before.
Gist of Idea
Heaven will be reclining on couches, eating fruit, attended by virgins
Source
Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.55)
Book Ref
Mohammed: 'The Koran', ed/tr. Dawood,N.J. [Penguin 1968], p.20
A Reaction
In the seventh century this was more impressive than it seems now. I still find it sad (though understandable) that paradise must always be depicted in terms of physical pleasure. Aristotle wouldn't have yearned for such an immortality.
| 13 | Is the supreme reward for virtue to be drunk for eternity? [Plato] |
| 7908 | At the end of a saint, he is not located in space, but just ceases to be disturbed [Ashvaghosha] |
| 6820 | The righteous shall dwell on couches in gardens, wedded to dark-eyed houris [Mohammed] |
| 6812 | Heaven will be reclining on couches, eating fruit, attended by virgins [Mohammed] |
| 4412 | Those in bliss have their happiness increased by seeing the damned punished [Aquinas] |
| 7203 | In heaven all the interesting men are missing [Nietzsche] |
| 18318 | People who disparage actual life avenge themselves by imagining a better one [Nietzsche] |
| 18288 | Heaven was invented by the sick and the dying [Nietzsche] |
| 18306 | We don't want heaven; now that we are men, we want the kingdom of earth [Nietzsche] |
| 21520 | That our heaven is a dull place reflects the misery of excessive work in life [Russell] |
| 23063 | The first man obviously found paradise unendurable [Cioran] |
| 20699 | Paradise would not contain some virtues, such as courage [Davies,B] |
| 7356 | Pious Jews saw heaven as a vast library [Johnson,P] |