Happiness in Classical Arabic Philosophy

Happiness (saʿāda) is a central ethical concept in Arabic philosophy and philosophical theology. Although saʿāda initially rendered Greek eudaimonia, the concept is not derivative of Greek philosophy in any simple sense. Instead, it is founded on an eclectic combination of classical sources; Muslim philosophers moreover extended its meaning to become a philosophical explanation of the Qurʾānic paradise. The chapter presents an overview of the concept of happiness in three sections. The first section analyzes the concept’s distinct components as framed around its classical and Islamic sources. The second and third sections present as case studies the theories of happiness by al-Fārābī (d. 950) and Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā; d. 1037), the two most influential philosophers of the classical period.