The Koran has for its subject matter death, resurrection, judgment, paradise, and hell. The joys of paradise are designed to satisfy fundamental desires in man. All who die for the cause of their religion go to paradise. This Mohammedan paradise is made delightful by beautiful black- eyed maidens (houris) not made of common clay. They are free from all blemishes; they are full of eternal virtue and beauty. They await the souls of believers in rosy bowers set in the hollow of giant pearls. The soil of paradise is perfumed and sprinkled with gold and silver and flowers. The fruits of the trees are of a taste unknown to mortals. Numerous rivers flow through paradise; some are of wine; others are of milk and honey. The riverbeds and riverbanks are full of emeralds, diamonds, and rubies. The meanest of believers will have 80000 servants and 72 wives. At whatever age a Mohammedan dies, his resurrection in paradise, he will be restored to manly vigor and eternal health. It would take a journey of a thousand years for a true believer to travel through paradise and see all the wives, servants, gardens, jewelry, robes, houses, camels, and other things that are exclusively his.
