Welfare and happiness has been looked upon for ages as the major desires of humanbeings and societies in such a way that positions, policies, and economic institutionsare evaluated in the light of their effects on individuals' welfare. However, there hasbeen much disputation about its quiddity and its essence. From the westernperspective, welfare basically addresses, the material part of human life and sees allthe values in enjoyments and luxurious life. Following this perspective, mainstreameconomists, in order to escape the philosophical discussions and probably providingobjective criteria, have consigned it to the individuals' preferences. From the Islamicperspective, on the other hand, it has been seen as happiness. In this article, firstlythe current theories of welfare and happiness in western point of view are describedand evaluated, and, finally, the Islamic perspective is presented. What the presentarticle mainly focuses on, following a philosophical approach along with analyticdescriptive method, is the meaning and essence of welfare, and little attention, if atall any, has been given to the policies of welfare. Regarding to the innate differencebetween human and human values in western and Islamic standpoint, the articleclaims that Islamic view of welfare is perfectionist one and welfare and happiness ofhuman being is pledged in perfection of both the physical and spiritual aspects ofthem. The author of the present paper argues that in western views recognition ofmankind's good firstly was setup to instincts while reason played an instrumentalrole and due to failures of these views in some recent theories reason has been giventhe basic role that is the recognition of human's good and bad.