This could be verified from any Arabic dictionary. The word _Kaa-ib refers strictly to woman, and in the context of the ayat quoted above it refers to the Hur of Jannat. The strictly feminine terms, meanings and qualities attributed to the Hur of Jannat by the Quran and Rasulullah (S.A.W.) plunge Yusuf Ali in a dilemma, and in order to extricate himself from his confusion and to salvage his interpretation of the word Hur, he lapses into a greater confusion by abortively attempting to explain away the femininity which the Quran ascribes to the Hur of Jannat.

Thus in the Appendix- on the description of Heaven he asserts: In lxxviii.33 are The above mentioned paragraph from Yusuf Ali’s commentary is a piece of pure deception because his statements here convey the impression that while the Quran attributes female qualities to the Hur of Jannat, it also ascribes masculine qualities to them (the Hur)thus cancelling out the strict femininity of the Hur. In support of his contention he cites verse lii, 24 (verse 24 of Surah Tur). But this verse does not speak of the Hur. In fact there is no reference whatsoever in this verse of the Hur of Jannat. The ayat is clear and unambiguous. It says: “YOUTHS . .”, and the word used in this verse is “GHILMAAN” and not HUR.

Ghilmaan is the plural of ghulaam which means a male servant. Yusuf Ali, himself translates the word GHILMAAN as “YOUTHS”. Ghilmaan in grammatical gender is masculine and in reality refers to males. There exists no difference of opinion on this score. Not a single authority of Islam — right from the time of Rasulullah (S.A.W.) — has ever said that “Ghilmaan” referred to in verse 24 of Surah Tur means the Hur of Jannat. The Ghilmaan mentioned in the Quran and the Hur of Jannat are two different entities or two different creations of Allah Ta’ala, which inhabit Jannat. The Ghilmaan are male and the Hur are female. Another factor which establishes the masculinity of the Ghilmaan is the pronoun, “HUM” which the Quran uses to refer to them (Ghilmaan).The pronoun “HUM” is masculine.

Not in even a single case does the Quran or the Hadith use a masculine term or pronoun for the Hur, but it does so in the case of the Ghilmaan. In his commentary, Yusuf All states: “The word Hur has been misunderstood an d misrepresented.” Indeed this is a most audacious claim. How .is it possible fora Rasulullah (S.A.W.) to misunderstand and misrepresent the word Hur? How is it possible for the Sahaba to misunderstand an d misrepresent the word Hur? And, how is it possible for all the great Authorities of Islam to misunderstand and misrepresent a word and cling to such a misrepresentation for fourteen centuries? After all, what Yusuf Ali states in his commentary is merely his own theory. It is not Islamic belief and Islamic interpretation.