rryyzz wrote:@Alphdoti, i'm just curious, where did the idea of 72 virgins come from? Is there a mention of them anywhere in the koran?
@rryyzz the highest authority in Islam, the Quran,
does not have the story of 72 virgins. In fact it has
nothing endorsing rewards for suicide. It
condemns very strongly with severe punishments those who
commit suicide.
The next level of authority is the Hadiths. The hadiths that are categorized as authentic i.e.
Bukhari and
Muslim. And we find
nothing endorsing suicide in them. Actually they
condemn suicide very strongly.
Now where did the story come from? @nandwa and @lolnest almost got the origin. There are some
unreliable hadiths referred to as
gharib Hadiths (strange or
weak Hadiths). One of them talks about 72 wives but not virgins.
This weak hadith is below, narrated by al-Tirmidhi Hadith number 2562 (shame on the person who narrated it!)
Quote:"The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah (i.e. Damascus suburb) to Sanaa (i.e. Yemen)"
This is as a weak Hadith, because there is a chance that it may have been
fabricated or
corrupted along the way. Therefore,
it has been rejected as technically
weak in its chain of narrators (transmitters) and it is not considered accurate.
As a result Muslims are
not required to believe in it.