Muslims believe it was revealed in Mecca (see Meccan surah), specifically around 7 years before the Hijrah (622), the migration of Muhammad to Medina.

[1]: 56:22 According to Ibn Kathir, in paradise there will be, "Houri (fair females) with wide lovely eyes, like preserved pearls.

[1]: 56:22 In The Message of The Qur'an, Muhammad Asad asserts that the "noun hur - rendered as 'companions pure' - is a plural of both ahwar (masculine) and hawra' (female), 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'.

Asad as well as Yusuf Ali and Marmaduke Pickthall translate this verse as:[9][10][11] And [with them will be their] companions pure, most beautiful of eye, like unto pearls [still] hidden in their shells.

[And this will be] a reward for what they did [in life].The Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an says, "the people of Paradise shall have spouses from amongst houri with fair complexions and wide black eyes who are preserved like pearls in shells".