بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْم

Hadith Database – Hadith on the Market in Paradise with “Images” of Men and Women

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“Ali narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘Indeed in Paradise there is a market in which there is no buying nor selling- except for images of men and women. So whenever a man desires an image, he enters it.’”

حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ مَنِيعٍ، وَهَنَّادٌ، قَالاَ حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو مُعَاوِيَةَ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنُ إِسْحَاقَ، عَنِ النُّعْمَانِ بْنِ سَعْدٍ، عَنْ عَلِيٍّ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ “‏ إِنَّ فِي الْجَنَّةِ لَسُوقًا مَا فِيهَا شِرَاءٌ وَلاَ بَيْعٌ إِلاَّ الصُّوَرَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ فَإِذَا اشْتَهَى الرَّجُلُ صُورَةً دَخَلَ فِيهَا ‏”‏ ‏.‏ قَالَ أَبُو عِيسَى هَذَا حَدِيثٌ غَرِيبٌ ‏.‏

Source: Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2550, https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2550

Status: Da’if (weak)

Explanation: This hadith has been shared on social media by perverted Christian missionaries as “proof” of Islam’s obsession with sex, whether in the earthly or in the afterlife. Such people claim that the hadith refers to having sexual intercourse, even “gay” sex (i.e., a man can choose an image of a handsome man and have sex with that image).[1] However, as we will see, it is actually an example of Christians exhibiting their filthy imagination as well as their deception and ignorance of Arabic.

            Most of the time, Christians will only provide a partial screenshot of the hadith, deliberately avoiding showing its status as a weak hadith (Figure 1).

Furthermore, the Christians are almost always ignorant of Arabic and ignore the Arabic text of a hadith. We can see in the present hadith that Imam Tirmidhi (i.e., Abu Isa) graded the hadith as “gharīb” (Figure 2).

As Ibrahim Madani explains in his book The Preservation of Hadith: A Brief Introduction to the Science of Hadith, a “gharīb” or “solitary” hadith is:

“[a] hadith in which only one person narrated a hadith throughout the transmission.”[2]

This, of course, does not mean the hadith is absolutely unreliable. It could have been narrated by one person and still be authentic.

            However, Sheikh Al-Albani, the famous hadith scholar of the 20^th century, graded the hadith as “da’if” (weak) in his Daif Sunan al-Tirmidhi (Figure 3).

                To reiterate, this does not mean the hadith was “fabricated” or is completely unreliable. Rather, it is of low reliability, and we cannot be sure that it is an accurate narration of what the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) actually said.[3]

            But the best part is yet to come. Recall that some Christians with filthy imaginations have claimed that the hadith refers to having sexual intercourse with the likeness of any image in the market, whether of a man or a woman. In other words, a man could choose to have sex with another man, if he so desired. This is due to their perverted interpretation of the Arabic phrase دَخَلَ فِيهَا (“he enters it”). To these filthy liars, to “enter” always has a sexual connotation! However, this is not the correct interpretation of the Arabic phrase. Rather, as explained in its commentary, the “Islamic Research Section Darussalam” explains that (emphasis ours):

“[t]he hadith tells us that Paradise will have a ‘market’ of a different type, where noting shall be bought or sold. It will rather have countless images of handsome men and pretty women on display. Whatever forms or images men will choose for themselves and their wives they will be transformed into the likes of those images.”[4]

            Finally, let us briefly look at the meaning of the word دَخَلَ (dakala). The Hans-Weir Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4^th Edition, defines the word as “to enter”, or when combined with في, it means to enter “into” (Figure 4).[5]

For it to have a sexual connotation, as in having intercourse with a woman, it would have to be combined with either ب or على (Figure 5).[6]

            In conclusion, this should be a lesson to Christians and other critics of Islam. Do not embarrass yourselves by exposing your ignorance, deception, and most importantly of all, your filthy imaginations. Just because you are deranged and perverted lunatics, that should not have any influence on the correct way to interpret Islamic sources.

And Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He knows best)!

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[1] For example, see here: https://twitter.com/MrQbblog/status/1499860448111468545?s=20&t=cjMB9vO1xQzO-m6AHjZQPw.

[2] Ibrahim Madani, The Preservation of Hadith: A Brief Introduction to the Science of Hadith (New York: Madania Publications, 2010), p. 28.

[3] In addition, it was brought to my attention that the main reason for the hadith being weak was because of one particular narrator: ʿAbdurraḥmān bin Isḥāq al-Wāsiṭī, who was considered to be a weak narrator by hadith scholars, such as Imam Ahmad, Imam al-Bukhari, and Imam an-Nawawi (https://twitter.com/sarvel_salim710/status/1499954213979410433?s=20&t=80gi6uN0UPcsMFjsrDaDbw).

[4] English Translation of Jami At-Tirmidhi, Volume 4, trans. Abu Khaliyl (Brooklyn, New York: Darussalam, 2007), p. 536.

For more scholarly information, see here: https://twitter.com/sarvel_salim710/status/1499954220748967939?s=20&t=3BRNhoTpoVFCe1U7EZbYrA

[5] Hans-Weir Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4^th Edition, ed. J. Milton Cowan (Urbana, Illinois: Spoken Language Services, Inc., 1993), p. 315.

[6] Ibid.

See also Lane’s Lexicon, p. 864.