Economic Welfare from an Islamic Perspective

In conventional economics, the aim of economic activities is to achieve welfare and prosperity that are taken equivalent to joy and happiness. This paper examines Islam's approach to economic welfare and the related concepts, such as pleasure, joy and happiness. According to the hypothesis of this research, Islam approves of reasonable welfare. The results show that Islam recognizes reasonable material welfare and aims at building an affluent Islamic society. In clarifying the optimal welfare in the view of Islam, Muslim scholars consider reasonable pleasures as superior to physical pleasures and, approving of physical pleasures, they accept them only if they are not inconsistent with reasonable pleasures. Opening the horizons of eternity for man, Islam seeks to orient material welfare towards the indescribable material and spiritual pleasures in the other world. Pleasures that are contrary to the otherworldly pleasures are deemed forbidden or blameworthy. There is a fundamental difference between the Islamic approach to welfare and the welfare in conventional economics according to which happiness is equivalent to pleasure. Islam legitimizes a "reasonable welfare”, whereas the contemporary economics vote for what can be referred to as “unreasonable welfare". Islam sees that unreasonable welfare leads to one's ingratitude for blessings, corruption, negligence and destruction of society.