Mel & Murad say the 72 Houris in paradise aren't women or grapes?

Mell and Murad return once again to help us understand who the 72 Houris given to men in paradise are. Mell points to St. Ephrem, one of the most prolific Christian Syriac writers, who lived in Edessa (what is now Saniurfa, Turkey), and is credited with writing over 400 hymns, homilies and lectionaries, all honoring and worshiping Jesus Christ. His hymns used symbolism and metaphors about Christ, especially words and ideas which had to do with the vineyard, but in fact were all about Jesus. These hymns were used to teach the believers about Jesus. Edward G. Matthews says, “for Ephrem, Christ is the center and focus of everything and he cannot help but see Christ in all things”. When we turn to the Qur’an, we find that many of its most beautiful writings are borrowed from these Syriac hymns by St Ephrem and speak directly about Christ in the metaphors they use. For instance, Surah 37:48-49 in the original Syriac refers to a short branch with ‘white’ eggs, or pearls. These pearls according to St Ephrem are Christ. In Surah 76:19 it refers to the circumambulation by immortal children, who are ‘dispersed’ pearls. In the Arabic it says these are immortal boys, yet the word used everywhere else in the Qur’an refers to them as children, not just boys. In Surah 52:54 it refers in the Syriac to ‘white grapes’, which according to St Ephrem are like ‘pearls’, once again both used in reference to Jesus. St Ephrem mentions that the first 'bitter fruit' was from Eve, while now the 'sweet fruit' is from Mary. So, when we read Surah 37:48-49 the 'Hourin' should be referencing white, crystal grapes which are hanging from the vine branches. When we read Surah 76:3-22 we can see many parallels to St Ephrem's symbolism in his writings, all referencing a garden or a forest of grape vines, with grapes (which are Jesus) and pearls (which again are Jesus - see Matthew 13:45), and to virgins, using the word Bakr in Arabic, which means 'brand new' or 'fresh', and thus are St Ephrem's references to Mary and Jesus. So, where did the 72 houris come to symbolize 72 virginal women? According to Mel, this was first introduced in the 9th century by Al-Tirmindhi, and is not even in the Qur'an. Thus, when we take these Qur'anic verses referencing houris in paradise back to their original Syriac texts, we find that they turn out to be borrowings from the 4th century Syriac writer St. Ephrem, who was not talking about virginal women at all, but was referring to Jesus Christ, the grape and the pearl of heaven, to whom all praise and honor is to be given. What was meant as beautiful prayers, poems and hymns honoring Jesus Christ were adulterated and sexualized by the later Muslims to refer to virginal women in paradise, who were used as chattel to wait upon their men. To see more of Mel's videos, go to his YouTube channel 'Origins' here: https://www.youtube.com/c/OriginsofIslam/videos To see more of Murad's videos, go to his YouTube channel 'Saint Murad' here: https://www.youtube.com/c/SaintMurad/videos © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 11/21/2022 (69,160) Music: "Uplifting Blockbluster" by Rafael Krux, from filmmusic-io