What religion believes there will be 72 virgins waiting for them when they kill themselves and others?

Question

Is that just a joke from Saturday Night Live, or is that a real belief?

What do the women think will be waiting for them when they commit murder/suicide?
Do they expect the same reward, 72 virgin men?

Is this belief written anywhere?

Answer 1

No religion so believes. However, there are radical Muslims who use this as a tool to get uneducated people to do their political killings for them.

I will add this---------
People who kill innocent people, so the Qur'an says,
will go to hell.
Only those who die on the battlefield, protecting life
and freedom, become martyrs.

Answer 2

The followers of Procal Harum believe 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

Answer 3

I hate to make corrections. It is 101 and not 72.

Answer 4

Here is the verse from the Holy Quran:

"Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance from their Lord. They rejoice in the Bounty provided by Allah...the (Martyrs) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve. They rejoice in the Grace and the Bounty from Allah, and in the fact that Allah suffereth not the reward of the Faithful to be lost (in the least)." (3:169-71)[13]
Where does it promises virgins as reward?

Answer 5

A fanatical group of Islam. Don't get confused with regular islam, there are many good people therein that don't beileve in killing themselves. But it is these fanitical groups like AL'qita that make the problems for everyone else. Killing others and yourself for religion doesn't sound too healthy for a religion or society if you ask me.

Answer 6

According to Buddha, only the devil himself preaches violence, sexual abuse, killing and hurting others.
Only shaitan(satan) can preach this.
Statements like these are used by fundamentalists to gain power and for that they need people to volunteer their lives.
Its utter nonsense , uncivilized and barbaric.
This is nothing but a twisted criminal mentality.
It looks like some people have changed this --
"Act selflessly, sacrifice your selfishness for good of others"
to
"Sacrifice yourself".

I think those who preach violence must be caught, bound & thrown in jails.

Answer 7

More Israelis and their friends in this country talk about 72 virgins, as heavenly reward, than Muslims. From what I have been able to trace, it all started with the CBS' 60-Minutes show in 1996 in which two Palestinian "terrorists" were shown perhaps jokingly referring to Abdullah `Azzam's book, "Join the Caravan," which had come out just a few months earlier in 1995. One of them stated that Muslims are promised 72 virgins in heaven for martyrdom. From that point onwards, there has been relentless propaganda that suicide bombers have been blowing themselves up so that they can go to heaven and get their 72 virgins. You can also test this theory on Google Groups Advanced Search. Although there have been great many controversies about Islam on Usenet, there is hardly any post that refers to 72 virgins before 1996. So this myth started with CBS' 60 Minutes, which is an extremely pro-Israeli show and is quite notorious for doing a job on those who are against Israel.

Quran does not say anything about 72 vigins. For other sources one must turn to the six (recognized) books of Hadith, among which Malik's Muwatta and Bukhari are more reliable. But neither Malik nor Bukhari considered their compilations perfect. Out of the other four Hadith books, Tirmidhi is the main source for the belief that martyrs may get up to 72 Houris. It was only in the sixth century A.H. that Tirmidhi's "Jami'" was accepted as one of the canonical books on Hadith. Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud and Sunan Nasai all received acceptance before Tirmidhi's Jami'. The other source is Ibn Khatir's "tafseer" (commentary) on the Quran. In a recent translation of his work, one can find a note from the publisher saying, "We are aware that Ibn Kathir's original work does contain some weak narrations as well as a number of Traditions related from the People of the Book (i.e. Jews and Christians}." Therefore, one can say that if a theological issue only has to rest on Tirmidhi and Ibn Khatir's commentary, it probably wouldn't be considered as very reliable. [By the way, the number 72 was a significant number in Jewish mysticism and among Christian Gnostics, and that's probably how it got into Hadith literature. But that's another topic].

Quran does mention Houris and describes them as beautiful women of Paradise, who will be "married" to those men who make it to Heaven. But the exact number is not given. In Bukhari, there is a Hadith that two Houris will be given to each man, but it's narrated through Abu Huraira, a man about whose credibility many Muslims, especially the Shiah, have expressed some grave doubts about throughout Islamic
history.

Quran makes it certain that people will enter Heaven with their wives and children: "And (as for) those who believe and their offspring follow them in faith, We will unite with them their offspring..."(52:21). Verse 40.8 also says the same thing, " Our Lord! and make them enter the gardens of perpetuity which Thou hast promised to them and those who do good of their fathers and their wives and their offspring, surely Thou are the Mighty, the Wise."

As far as the descriptions of Paradise are concerned in the Quran, the idea is that each person who believes in God and has good deeds would be rewarded in the hereafter with whatever his or her heart desires. [It is expected that a person would be wise and noble before he or she enters Heaven]. There is a well known Hadith, reported both in Bukhari and Muslim, that says, "God has said that for my good and obedient servants, I have prepared that which no eyes have seen, no ears have heard, and no heart has considered." Ibn Abbas, one of the companions of the Prophet (s.a.w), also stated that except for names, there is no comparison between what exists on earth and what will be in the hereafter.

Answer 8

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari mentions that all righteous women, however old and decayed they may have been on earth, will be resurrected as virginal maidens and will, like their male counterparts, remain eternally young in paradise.[32]


[edit] Ibn Kathir
Ibn Kathir says that the houri "are delightful virgins of comparable age who never had sexual intercourse with anyone, whether from mankind or Jinns, before their husbands."[56] by commenting,"in the other life, after they became old in this life, they were brought back while virgin, youthful, being delightfully passionate with their husbands, beautiful, kind and cheerful." [54]

Answer 9

First of all, when you die you leave your physical body behind for the undertaker. What good would 72 virgins be without a you know what?

Answer 10

i'm not sure but i saw a joke on facebook about an islamic extremist who believed the same thing. i didn't watch it all cos i don't like those type of jokes, so i don't know if its even a real belief. pretty stupid idea of a joke though