Happiness, being the objective sought by each and everybody, lies at the center of the ethical issues.
As mentioned by V. J. McGill, author of The Idea of Happiness, in such a moral framework, a good man is one who works to attain happiness or to further it, in the most efficient manner possible, fully utilizing his talents and opportunities.
Other things are good only if they are instrumental or in harmony with happiness or good life.
On the contrary, men are considered wicked insofar as they produce misery when they might have produced happiness.
Punishment of wrongdoers must aim at happiness, or at a reduction of misfortune and misery, of which Jeremy Bentham’s well-known principles of legislation is a case in point.
Happiness as an ideal is, indeed, a unifying force of the whole world of desire, purpose, of education, law, and institutional life.Actions, policies, institutions, rules of conduct – they are justified only if their tendency is to further happiness, or to prevent the opposite.
Integrated with Islamic faith and belief, the highest happiness that each and everyone has to believe in and strive hard to attain is ultimate happiness in the hereafter (al-sa‘adah al-ukhrawiyyah).
According to Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, this refers to “pleasure without pain, unbounded riches, undiminished perfection and unsurpassed glory enduring for all time.”
According to the worldview of Islam, a good life or happiness can only be attained if true knowledge (‘ilm) is joined to right conduct (‘amal as adab).
Yet, true knowledge requires a standard (mi‘yar) which distinguishes it from other activities which are non-knowledge or sophism, such as mere opinion (zann), subjective sentiment (hawa), vain controversies (mira’), and so on.
Action also requires a criterion (mizan) which will not only determine the type of action conducive to happiness but also distinguish it from that which conduces to wretchedness.
That requirement is reflected in two works of al-Ghazzali, titled Mi‘yar al-‘Ilm and Mizan al-‘Amal, literally means “Standard of Knowledge” and “Criterion of Action”, respectively.
Action conduces to happiness mainly denotes the harnessing of the passions of the soul, the controlling of anger, and the curbing of such propensities of the soul, so as to ensure that they all will submit to sound reason aided by divine revelation.
As for knowledge, al-Ghazali exhorts the earnest searcher of happiness to rise above mere imitative knowledge (taqlid) to the plane of knowledge with certainty, that is, by means of God’s guidance.
Nevertheless, he recognizes that not only is acquiring demonstrative knowledge very difficult due to many factors, but the majority of mankind are also ignorant and torpid.
The one who has no ability to acquire demonstrative knowledge, al-Ghazzali thus argues, should occupy himself with action only and confine himself to such measure of knowledge as is essential to right action.
According to him, the measure of knowledge which is essential to right action can be classified into the intellectual (‘ilm nazari) and practical sciences (‘ilm ‘amali).The subject-matter of the former sciences includes the knowledge of Allah, of His angels, His messengers, as well as of the physical creation and its many ramifications, both heavenly and terrestrial.
Yet, the knowledge of such created entities is not to be sought on its own account.Instead, they must be sought insofar as they are related to Allah’s power and reveal His Lordship, in order that humanity might benefit from them.
On the other hand, the practical sciences involve the following: firstly, ethics, which is the knowledge of the soul as well as its properties and moral traits; secondly, household management (tadbir al-manzil); and thirdly, politics, which is the management of the affairs of the country.
The ancient philosophers regarded ethics, household economy and politics as the three faces of integrated moral philosophy-the first looking toward the life of the individual, the second toward the life of the family, and the third toward the life of the state or community.
Of these three branches, however, ethics is for them paramount.The reason is, as al-Ghazzali remarks, “the one who cannot manage or direct his soul will be ill-equipped to manage the affairs of others”, including of his family members and community.
Indeed, ethics is concerned with the basic standards that must be employed in order to judge and evaluate the institutions of the family and the community and its culture.Aristotle thus spoke of moral philosophy as “the master of discipline or architectonic science.”
Al-Ghazzali also insists that the ethical enquiry should begin with the knowledge of the soul or the self as well as its powers and properties.
The issues of happiness or the good life, of the good family, and of the good society also belong to religion (al-din).They cannot be sufficiently solved shorn of reference to God, divine guidance (al-huda), and the life eternal in the hereafter.