11 September—Just like Japan’s airborne 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor blitz, Al-Qaeda’s airborne 9 September 2001 multi-front terrorist blitz didn’t come without at least some forewarning. But of course, as often happens, the intelligence gatherers and interpreters in 1941 and 2001 were caught with their pants down.

That said, on the 25^th anniversary of the atrocity you’ve still got to wonder how the 19 9/11 suicidal terrorist hijackers—and other Islamic kamikazes, for that matter—could actually have believed they’d be going to Jannah, the Islamic heaven or paradise, each to marry 72 houris—heavenly companions, often translated as dark-eyed virgins—as one of the several privileges granted to believers.

To be sure, battlefield martyrs like the Al-Qaeda terrorists also get other heavenly goodies and privileges reserved for first-class, premium-level passengers, as it were. You don’t care about those, but you can rest assured that Muslim kamikazes have what amounts to an express elevator that takes them directly to the hundredth—and top—level of Jannah.

In the interest of accuracy, though, while the Quran definitely speaks of houris among the heavenly rewards for deserving—i.e., pious—Muslim men, it doesn’t actually mention a specific number. But why quibble? More to the point for Muslim men (among others), the Quran does in fact describe the virgin houris as having full, swelling, pear-shaped breasts.

If you’re wondering why the Jewish and Christian holy books are silent on heavenly rewards like that, wonder no more. In fact, forget it. The Song of Solomon and Proverbs may have some raunchy stuff, but not in the afterlife. And while you’re forgetting heavenly rewards, keep in mind that pious and otherwise martyred Muslim women aren’t totally ignored in the Quran—they’re merely underprivileged and belittled, just like they are in much of Islamic law and society when they’re alive. There are no male houris, for instance.

And if you’re still wondering if the Al-Qaeda kamikazes actually fell for the Jannah and houri stuff, recovered documents left behind by them would tend to confirm it. Mohamed Atta, for instance, the 33-year-old Egyptian civil engineer who served as operational commander on 9/11 and piloted the 767 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower, encouraged his troops, so to speak, not to fear death and in fact reassured them that the virgins were calling. That’s leadership above and beyond.

Answers to other questions that come to mind, then: Muslim martyrs are expected to actually marry all 72 houris, but whether all at once is a pilpul for rabbis to fight over. On the other hand, 72 wives is martyrdom in itself.

Forget about non-conventionally-heterosexual Muslim martyrs, who likely have been and are martyred precisely because they’re not conventionally heterosexual.

If the 9/11 demonstrably gullible kamikazes were U.S. citizens, it’s certain they’d be avid supporters of Donald Trump . . .