Falah as a Goal

A Muslim is the one whose purpose in life is to achieve falah by being successful in his role as the vicegerent of God on this earth. Falah, according to al-Ghazali means eternal happiness and it can be divided into falah in this world and falah in the hereafter.

As a Muslim, our ultimate goal is to achieve falah in the hereafter because this is the eternal place where all of or deeds in the present world will be evaluated accordingly by Allah for us to receive reward or punishment. The most important criterion for our good deeds to be accepted by Allah is first, we must testify that there is no other gods but Allah and Prophet Muhammad SAW is His messenger. This is because Allah does not accept the good deeds done by the non-believer (Ali-‘Imran:91)

By stressing the importance of falah in the hereafter, it does not mean that we must neglect this world (al-Qasas:77). Muslims must also be successful in this world because this is the place and now is the time for us to put our ‘investment’ (in the form of good deeds and virtues) to be brought before Allah, the Almighty in the hereafter. To guide our economic activities, this is where Islamic economics is significant. It guides us on how to manage the resources which are given as a trust by Allah, for us to utilize them as a mean to achieve falah in the hereafter.

For a Muslim, success in this world is not the ultimate aim in life. Success in this world is a mean to achieve the eternal happiness in the hereafter. All material well-being, power, position, honor and glory that we have in this world as a result for our good deeds are just the ‘by-product’; not the ultimate purpose of our excellent efforts. They also could be a form of test upon us.

Therefore, in order to achieve falah, we need to make sure that our soul and body are both in a peaceful condition. To secure peace of the soul, we need divine guidance, while peace of the body could be achieved by good health, beauty, wealth, influence and good family.