Huri
\r\nIt is clear that the term huri, used in the (idhafah) construction hur-al-ayn, meant something specific to the Jahili Arab. She was 'so called by the Arabs of the desert because of her whiteness or fairness or cleanness'. She was a woman of 'clear complexion and skin'. The descriptions given of the huri are specific and sensual—youthful, virgin females with large dark eyes, white skin, and a pliant character—'while nowhere ... are found similar descriptions detailing, if not the beauty, at least the modest or even perhaps hidden assets of earthly wives'.
\r\nThe specific depiction here of the companions of Paradise demonstrates the Quran's familiarity with the dreams and desires of those Arabs. The Quran offers the huri as an incentive to aspire after truth. It is impossible to believe that the Quran intends white women with large eyes to represent a single universal description of beauty for all humankind. If we take these mythological depictions universally as the ideal female, a number of culturally specific limitations are forced on the divergent audiences of the Quran. The value of these particulars is extremely limited.
\r\nThe Quran itself demonstrates the limitation of this particular depiction when the community of believers in Islam had increased in number and established itself at Madinah. After the Makkan period, the Quran never uses this term again to depict the companions in Paradise. After Madinah, it describes the companions of Paradise in generic terms like azwaj.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n "Quran and Women" - Amina Wadud, pp. 54, 55