al-Raḥmān

فِيهِنَّ خَيْرَاتٌ حِسَانٌ

فَبِأيِّ آلَآء رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

70. There shall be women of fair face and good character in those Gardens.

71. Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both [jinn and men] deny?

The blessed Verse 70 further treats of other Divine Blessings, saying that there shall be women fair of face and good of character in these two Paradises. The Arabic word khayr generally connotes spiritual and immaterial good and beauty and the word husn generally designates beauty of looks and appearance. A tradition narrated regarding the exegesis of the blessed Verse in question enumerates many good characteristics for women in Paradise which may allude to those of women in this world and serve as a model for all women.

Such characteristics include: kindness in speech, cleanliness and purity, restraining from inflicting harms on others, and turning away their glances from those outside the circle of kinship. In short, all the physical and non-physical beauties expected in a desirable spouse may be found in them. Likewise the blessed Qur’anic Verse expresses such good characteristics in a terse phrase:

"of fair face and good characters"

(khayrat hisan). According to a Prophetic tradition:

"Women in Paradise have fair faces and good characters." ⁸

It is also mentioned in narrations that:

"of fair face and good characters"

refers to righteous good women in this world who shall be fairer than wide-eyed huri's in Paradise.⁹ The blessed Verse 71 repeats the question:

"Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both [jinn and men] deny?"

Footnotes

1. 8. Tafsir Nur al-Thiqalayn, under the blessed Verse in question.
2. 9. Usul Kafi, vol. 8, p. 156.