Under the Tutelage of the Qur'an: Prosperity (Falah) in the Qur'an

Under the Tutelage of the Qur'an: Prosperity (Falah) in the Qur'an

Article:

Abstract:

In this article, the concept of prosperity (Falah) in Qur'an is being

studied by searching and listing all the verses in which there is a direct

reference to the concept. The verses are being used in two categories of

“characteristics of those who are qualified to reach prosperity” and “the

means to attain the characteristics that result in prosperity”. The findings

are presented in a structured model that can be used for monitoring and

improving one's spiritual status.

Further

research agendas on the relevant area are introduced at the end.

Introduction:

Any intelligent human being is engaged in many

activities to satisfy a number of objectives. For a thoughtful human being, all

the objectives are in fact means to reach one ultimate goal. This ultimate goal

can be different things for different people. It can be “Getting as much

pleasure as possible”, “Being

Happy”, “Being Beneficial to the Society”, “Serving One's Country”,

“Contributing to Science”, etc. To satisfy such goals, people are keen to

reach their objectives. For example, for the one whose goal is to “Being

Beneficial to the Society”, there could be a number of objectives like

recognising the needs of society, acquiring helpful skills and knowledge, making

necessary contacts and links with the government, etc. It seems reasonable to

argue that the ultimate goal for a Muslim (or in fact any religious human being

in an Abrahamic religion) is to attain ultimate and lasting prosperity. Of

course, people might use different expressions to refer to this goal, like

“Satisfying God”, “Obeying God”, etc. However to make it more

“tangible” and understandable I prefer to call it “Prosperity” that is a

translation of the word Falah - in the Qur'an. It is because of this

ultimate goal that Muslims try their best to obey God, to learn Islam, for some,

to become scholars, for some, to become charity organisers and in general to

struggle for the cause of Islam in any possible way.

It is of course possible to argue from

another point of view that it is in fact the love for the Creator and the

Provider that makes us struggle for his cause and to have religious objectives.

In fact this view presents a more beautiful perspective rather than the previous

perspective that might be perceived by some as being like a merchandising

activity. However even from this point of view, Falah (prosperity) still

can be considered as the ultimate goal. This is because Falah can be seen

as a clear sign of a successful relationship with the Creator. If we really love

our creator, this love should result in us trying to please him and pleasing him

results in our prosperity in the hereafter. Therefore even from this beautiful

perspective, we again arrive on the concept of Falah. Falah is one

of the Qur'anic concepts that has been emphasised through out the book quite

extensively.

Falah

is derived from the root of Fa-la-ha and originally means

“to plough”. Plough implying going through a route with difficulty and

eventually reaching to harvest, the word has been apparently adapted to have a

general meaning of reaching safety and salvation after struggling for it. In the

context of Islam, Falah means attaining triumph

and prosperity in the hereafter. This of course can be reached when God is

pleased with his servant (although this pleasure is the result, to a great

extent, of God's own extreme mercy and forgiveness).

It

should be interesting for a Muslim to discover how it is possible to reach the

ultimate goal of prosperity. Obviously, Qur'an being the book of guidance for

religious matters and prosperity being the main goal of a religious human being,

it is reasonable to expect Qur'an to give us helpful hints and directions about

how to reach prosperity.

The

following is a brief attempt to study the means and the features of being

qualified for prosperity according to Qur'an. The study is only based on what

can be found in Qur'an and no other source has been used for the purpose:

Prosperity

There are 40

places (could be a verse or a sequence of a number of verses), in

Qur'an containing words that are deriving from the Arabic root of Fa-la-ha

(as searched by a reliable Qur'an Search Engine). The following is a

classification of these verses:

Type

One: Verses in which characteristics

(qualifications) of those who will reach prosperity in the hereafter are given:

In 15

out of the 40 places the noun Al-Muflihoon or Al-Muflihi” (Those

who reach prosperity in the hereafter) or the verb Aflaha (one reached

prosperity) is used. The reference to prosperity in all but 4 of these places is

preceded with the expression of “Ola'eka Hom - اولئك

هم ”

(verily they are). The format in which the word Al-Muflihoon is used in

these 11 places is like this:

<…..>

, verily they are “Al-Muflihoon”.

المفلحون

هم

<…..>

The

dots in the above format contains some characteristics. In other words, in each

of these verses, some of the characteristics of Muflihoon (those who

reach prosperity in the hereafter) are given.

In the

4 other places verses in which the format (and occasionally the word derived

from “Fa-la-ha“) is different are still giving some of

the characteristics of the people who will reach prosperity. These are 23:1 -

58:22 - 87:14 - 91:9.

The

conclusion is that by listing the characteristics that are referred to in these

15 places in Qur'an, it is possible to argue that we have come up with a list of

the characteristics that according to Qur'an are characteristics of some one who

will reach prosperity in the hereafter.

The

following is the list of these characteristics with the reference from Qur'an:

Al

• Firmly

  believe in the unseen (Ghaib)

• Establish

  (firm) prayers

• Give

  Zakat

• Firmly

  believe in Qur'an and other books

• Certainty

  about the Hereafter (Akhira)

(the

Ale

Imran 3:104

• Inviting

  to good

• Enjoining

  right

• Forbidding

  indecency

Al

A`raf 7:8; Al Mu'minoon 23:102

• Heavy

  scale of good deeds

Al

A`raf 7:157

• Firmly

  believe the Prophet

• Honour

  him

• Help

  him

• Follow

  Qur'an

Al

Tawbah 9:88

• Strive

  (Jihad) with wealth and life

Al

Mu'minoon 23:1-9

• Humble

  in prayers and guarding them

• Avoid

  vain things

• Give

  Zakat

• Abstain

  from unlawful (Haram) sex

• Observing

  trusts and covenants

(the

Al

Noor 24:51

• Saying

  “we heard and we obey”, when hearing a ruling by Allah Ta'ala or the

  Prophet

Al

Room 30:38

• Seeking

  countenance of Allah Ta'ala

Luqman

• Establish

  (firm) prayers

• Give

  Zakat

• Certain

  about hereafter (Akhira)

(the

Al

Mujadilah 58:22

• Not

  befriending the enemies of God, even if they are their relatives or members

  of their clan.

Al

Hashr 59:9; Al-Taghaboon 64:16

• Being

  saved from ones own avarice

Al

A'la 87:14-15

• Purifying

  oneself

• Remembrance

  of the name of Allah and Prayer

Al

Shams 91:9

• Purifying

  oneself

A

glance at the above list reveals the possibility of categorising the referred

characteristics into three categories:

1. Firm

   Belief (E.g. believing in the unseen)

2. Pillar

   practice (E.g. prayer)

3. Other

   Practices (E.g. inviting to good)

Apart

from the above, there are other items that can be seen as an obvious

pre-requirement or a title or a result of the above, these are “obeying Allah

and the Prophet”, “following Qur'an”, “seeking

countenance of Allah”, “purifying”

and “heavy scale”. These will be considered as obvious (pre-assumed)

characteristics of reaching prosperity in the hereafter and are thus excluded

from the final conclusion of this article.

Type

Two: Verses in which the means of acquiring the conditions of reaching

prosperity in the hereafter are given:

While

in the first type of the verses, the characteristics of the people who are

already qualified for reaching prosperity are given, in this type of verses, the

means by which the qualifications (needed to reach prosperity) can be obtained

are addressed. The characteristics listed in the last section could be seen as a

natural result of using these means.

These

are 12 places out of 40. In all these places except one (28:67) the word

“Toflehoon - تفلحون”

(reach prosperity) is used, preceded by the phrase “La'alla kom - لعلكم”

(-that- you may) in the following format:

<…>,

La'alla kom Toflihoon

<…> لعلكم

تفلحون

The

dots in the above format are all referring to some practices. These are the

practices, adherence to which will bring the person to a position that he/she

will be deemed as some one who may reach prosperity in the hereafter.

The

conclusion is that listing all these practices should give us the list of the

practices that according to Qur'an are hopefully leading to the characteristics

of some one who will attain prosperity.

The

following is a reference to these practices with Qur'anic references.

Al

Taqwa

A

Al

Refraining from abomination (Rijs)

Al

Remembrance of bounties (benefits) received from Allah

Al

Allah much

Al

Bowing, prostrating, worshipping, doing good

Al

Repent from disobeying Allah (here in terms of cross gender relation laws)

Al

Repent (from Shirk), believe and do right (`Amala Saliha)

Al

Remembrance

(calling of Allah) frequently

From the above, it is obvious that “Taqwa”

and “extensive remembrance of Allah Ta'ala” (Dhikrullah) can

be singled out as two of the frequently referred means to Falah in the

Qur'an. This is while other means have also been mentioned occasionally like

worshipping, striving in the path of Allah and doing good.

Type

Three:

There

are 11 verses (out of 40) that refer to the people (or group of people) who will

not reach prosperity. As this article is about the means and the

characteristics of reaching prosperity, these verses are not directly relevant

to the subject and are not taken into consideration.^[1]

Type

Four:

There

are also 2 verses (out of 40) in which the reference to prosperity is not in its

religious meaning, although in one of them it might be, depending on the

perspective. These verses are left out of this study to ensure the study is

concentrating only on the relevant verses.^[2]

Discussion

It is always

useful to present the conclusion of a study in a schematic form, in particular

if the conclusion contains a number of related elements that form a robust

structure. The findings of this study are presented in the following model:

How to reach prosperity according to

Qur'an*

The

above model can be used to represent what can be learned from Qur'an about the

means of reaching salvation and the characteristics of those who will reach it. In

this model, the results are separated in two sections: Means if prosperity and

characteristics of those who will reach prosperity. The characteristics are

categorised in three parts: Belief, Pillar Practice and (Other) Practices. The

thickness of the boxes containing these features represents their importance in

terms of being fundamental.

Following the sequence of the provided

model, it is possible to state that according to an understanding from Qur'an,

one should put one's effort to obtain the characteristics of prosperity. To do

this, there are a number of means, most distinguished of which are extensive

remembrance of Allah Ta'ala (Dhikr) and Taqwa. By these means one

should be able to establish firm belief in one's heart on unseen (Ghaib),

the Prophet, Qur'an and other divine books and the hereafter. It is based on

these articles of belief that one will be firm in establishing prayer and Zakat

and in acquiring other characteristics mentioned in the model. Such effort

should result in obtaining the pleasure of Allah Ta'ala and prosperity by

his kindness, forgiveness and grace.

One practical use of this model is for a

Muslim to use it as criteria to assess him/herself and to appreciate how can

he/she become a better Muslim in order to satisfy his/her lord and reach

prosperity in the hereafter. The author appreciates that it might be difficult

for one to assess oneself in terms of the Belief section of the model. However

it should be easy for one to assess oneself in terms of the Practices sections

of the model and the result of such assessment can be used as an indicator to

how good one is doing in terms of Belief.

Some

In the

conclusion of this work there are some very important points that should be

noted and kept in mind when looking at and using the presented model:

1. One

   might ask how come Taqwa (fear of Allah) and Dhikr

   (remembrance) are shown to be means to characteristics like belief while

   logically one will first believe and then starts obtaining Taqwa and

   remembering Allah. It is important to note that “belief” in the

   above-mentioned verses is different from the initial act of believing in the

   Prophet and becoming a Muslim that is often referred to by the verb “Amanoo”

   -آمنوا . Here “belief” means a stable,

   well-established true belief. This is why it is translated as “Firm”

   belief (the discussion about this point is beyond the scope of this

   article). Taqwa and Remembrance of Allah Ta'ala have

   positive effect on establishing and firming belief in one's heart (after

   one has declared one's belief and has become Muslim).

2. There

   is no basis to argue that the items that are referred to in the

   “Characteristics” section of the model are the only characteristics of

   people who will reach prosperity. There are many other characteristics (many

   of them in fact being obligatory upon Muslims) that can be equally seen as

   the conditions (if not characteristics) of reaching salvation. “Fasting”

   or “being good to parents” are only two of these

   characteristics/conditions that although have been emphasised in Qur'an,

   have not been directly referred to in the verses on prosperity. These are

   however indirectly referred to in the verses because these features are in

   fact examples of obeying Allah, Qur'an and the Prophet and seeking Allah's

   countenance (as listed in type one of the references above i.e. Al Noor

   24:51; Al A`raf 7:157; Al Room 30:38).

   The point however is that the characteristics that are referred to in this

   article are those that are directly pointed out in Qur'an when referring to

   prosperity. Therefore it is reasonably possible to argue that these

   characteristics are the most distinguished characteristics of people who

   will reach salvation.

3. It

   is also not possible to argue that one needs to be equipped with all these

   characteristics to be able to reach salvation. It is reasonable (based on

   the general understanding from Qur'an) to argue that among the items

   that are introduced as characteristics of those who reach prosperity, only

   all the ones that are coming under “Belief” and “Pillar Practices”

   are the characteristics without which no promise of prosperity can be given.

   Based on these items of belief and pillar practices and depending on

   situation and personal conditions, one might fulfill some or all of the

   items that are mentioned in the “Practices” section of the model.

4. The

   above model is useful for those who want to have a framework to monitor and

   improve their spiritual personality to be able to please Allah Ta'ala

   and reach prosperity in the hereafter. Having said that it should also be

   noted that none of our characteristics per se (no matter how great they are)

   could make us qualified enough to expect prosperity in the hereafter. It is

   because of the extreme mercy and kindness of our lord that such

   characteristics are being taken as characteristics of those who will reach

   prosperity, otherwise, in front of his glorious status, we and our

   characteristics are absolutely nothing worth of mentioning. In fact, the

   very ability of obtaining these characteristics is provided for us under the

   extreme kindness of our lord, the most glorious.

Further

There are many relevant subjects in this area that

can be further studied and explored. The author is keen to carry on these

studies or (even better) to see the results of a study on these subjects by

another interested fellow Muslim:

• Some

  of the items that are referred to in the above are grouped in Qur'an as

  definition of other Qur'anic titles. For instance the verses at the

  beginning of the Surah of Baqara are to define Al Muttaqin. Likewise

  the referred verses in Surah of Luqman are used to define the

  title Al Muhsineen and the verses at the beginning of the Surah

  of Al-Mu'minoon are used to define the title Al Mu'mineen. One

  interesting area to explore is to look further for the other references to

  these titles in Qur'an and to build up a Qur'anic understanding about each

  of these titles.

• Many

  of the items in the model are further referred to in the other verses of

  Qur'an. It is helpful to get a better understanding of these items by

  looking at them in other places in Qur'an.

• The

  study has only presented what can be found in the very verses that are

  referring to the concept of prosperity. The items referred to in the model

  can be further studied by taking into consideration the context in which

  these verses are given in Qur'an.

• Some

  of these verses are Makki (revealed in Makkah) and some are Madinah

  (revealed in Madinah). Generally the Makki verses are more

  associated with the personal and individual aspects of Islam while Madinah

  verses are generally associated with more social aspects of belief. From

  another point of view, it is possible to argue that the Makki verses are

  presenting beliefs and practices that are (generally) pre-requirements for

  what the Madinah verses are (generally) present. Based on this, it

  might be possible to differentiate the items in the “Practice” section

  of the model to see which items can be seen as prioritised items over the

  rest.

• As

  mentioned at the beginning of the article, this study is only based on

  Qur'an. The findings can be further elaborated on by the use of Sunnah

  and Hadith.

• One

  can use a common sense rationality, supported by the comments from scholars

  and reliable ahadith to make the model more comprehensive by drawing a cause

  and effect arrows and feed back loops between the items in the model.

Last

The author has

done his best to accurately present what he finds in Qur'an and to discuss and

conclude (based on the findings) as less subjective as possible. Human being is

not immune from errors and subjectivity. The author therefore appreciates to

receive any corrective comments on this article.

May

Allah help us in obtaining the characteristic of those who have been promised

prosperity in the here after and shower us with his infinite mercy and kindness.

Ameen.