Ma`rifat Kalami

The relationship between worldly happiness and hereafterly happiness is one of the important issues in religious anthropology and among the questions whose elucidation depends on an understanding of the ends of human life and the degrees of human perfection. The present study, with the aim of elucidating this relationship in the thought of Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi, examines the place of worldly happiness in the path toward attaining hereafterly happiness. The findings of the study indicate that, based on the principle of the “unity of life,” these two forms of happiness are not two separate ends, but rather two hierarchical stages of a single reality that acquire their meaning along the course of human perfection. Although worldly happiness does not possess intrinsic ends in itself, it has instrumental value as a necessary prerequisite and a foundation for the actualization of the human being’s higher potentials and for progressing along the path toward divine proximity. Therefore, in the thought of Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi, worldly happiness is not explained as an independent and separate end, but rather as a preliminary stage that provides the necessary foundation for the realization of human perfection and the attainment of everlasting happiness. In evaluating this view, challenges have also been raised concerning its foundations and implications.