Abstract
The emergence of Muslim suicide-bombers in the final decades of the twentieth century transformed otherwise obscure Islamic traditions(ahadith) into a topic of sensational public interest, as well as ridicule. According to these traditions, Muslim men that die waging jihad against the enemies of Islam will be rewarded by Allah in heaven (jannah) as martyrs (shuhada) and receive seventy-two virgins to enjoy in blissful ecstasy. This notion seems to be particularly attractive to young males who live in otherwise sexually repressive societies (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan), perhaps due to stifling economic limitations, and are yet to marry.
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Notes
See Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003).
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This includes being killed for preaching the message of Islam, speaking the truth in defiance of a tyrant, refusing to compromise ones faith under compulsion or torture, et cetera. See E. Kohlberg, “Shahid,” in The Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition, Vol. IX, ed. C. E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs, and G. Lecomte (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997), 203–207.
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Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003), 86.
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© 2011 Jeffry R. Halverson, H. L. Goodall Jr., and Steven R. Corman
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Halverson, J.R., Goodall, H.L., Corman, S.R. (2011). Seventy-Two Virgins. In: Master Narratives of Islamist Extremism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-11723-5_14
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