"The noun hur - rendered by me as 'companions pure' - is a plural of both ahwar (masc) and hawra (fem), either of which describes 'a person distinguished by hawar, which latter term primarily denotes 'intense whiteness of the eyeballs and lustrous black of the iris' (Qamus).
Hur implies the following ideas: (1) purity; possibly the word Hawwariyun as applied to the first Disciples of Jesus is connected with this root; (2) beauty, especially of eyes where the intense white of the eye-balls stands out against the intense black of the pupil, thus giving the appearance of lustre, and intense feeling, as opposed to dullness or want of expression; and (3) truth and goodwill.
It 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'.[41] The description 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'.[42]
The specific depiction here of the companions of Paradise demonstrates the Qur'an's familiarity with the dreams and desires of those Arabs. The Qur'an offers the huri as an incentive to aspire after truth. It is impossible to believe that the Qur'an 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 Qur'an. The value of these particulars is extremely limited.
The Qur'an itself demonstrates the limitation of this particular description when the community of believers in Islam had increased in number and established itself at Madinah. After the Makkan period, the Qur'an never uses this term again to depict the companions in Paradise. After Madinah, it describes the companions of Paradise in generic terms, 'For those who keep from evil, with their Lord are Gardens underneath which rivers flow, and pure azwaj and contentment from Allah.' (3:15). Keeping in mind my arguments about the generic use of certain terms, 'believers' here are either male or female, especially as azwaj is used for both in the Qur'an.
41 Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 vols. (London: Librarie du Liban, 1980), Part Jim To Ta, p.666
42 Fatna A Sabbah, Woman in the Muslim Unconscious, translated by Mary Jo Lakeland from the French, La Femme dans l'inconscient Musulman (New York: Pergamon Press, 1984) p.95
Sounds like a very specific image of beauty.
Topic: Houri/black eyed virgins