Abstract

Welfare and happiness has been looked upon for ages as the major desires of human
beings and societies in such a way that positions, policies, and economic institutions
are evaluated in the light of their effects on individuals' welfare. However, there has
been much disputation about its quiddity and its essence. From the western
perspective, welfare basically addresses, the material part of human life and sees all
the values in enjoyments and luxurious life. Following this perspective, mainstream
economists, in order to escape the philosophical discussions and probably providing
objective criteria, have consigned it to the individuals' preferences. From the Islamic
perspective, on the other hand, it has been seen as happiness. In this article, firstly
the current theories of welfare and happiness in western point of view are described
and evaluated, and, finally, the Islamic perspective is presented. What the present
article mainly focuses on, following a philosophical approach along with analytic
descriptive method, is the meaning and essence of welfare, and little attention, if at
all any, has been given to the policies of welfare. Regarding to the innate difference
between human and human values in western and Islamic standpoint, the article
claims that Islamic view of welfare is perfectionist one and welfare and happiness of
human being is pledged in perfection of both the physical and spiritual aspects of
them. The author of the present paper argues that in western views recognition of
mankind's good firstly was setup to instincts while reason played an instrumental
role and due to failures of these views in some recent theories reason has been given
the basic role that is the recognition of human's good and bad.