What is Success?

The factors that determine a community’s understanding and imagination of “Success” contribute greatly towards its developmental ventures. And the imagination of success is influenced greatly by the identity of each separate society and because societies have varying identities they naturally have distinct perspectives of success based on their own Worldview, therefore if a certain society judges the achievements of others based on the criteria of its own sense of success (worldview), it would be taking a fallacious line of reasoning unless it succeeds in establishing its own imagination of success as the sole objectively accepted standard of excellence. To judge the success/achievement /development of a society, one needs to identify a common understanding of ‘success’ – criteria to judge success through, and if two societies have contrastingly distinct worldviews, judging each by the definition of success of the other wouldn’t be fair.

“Success is Progress”

According to a huge amount of modern “Intellectual Influencers”, progress by itself is the meaning of success – thus the current state of the world we have achieved i.e. modernism is a sign of success. To be precise, the western’ conception of progress and becoming progressive is what amounts to success. The very act of moving with Time and Cultural/Social unfolding of the maximum actualisation of Human desires is what constitutes Success in the western progressive worldview. Success in this frame of idea isn’t a final goal, but the constant process of becoming Modern, where Modern means nothing more than keeping up with the process of progress – hence making the concept of success, a perpetual loop.

This precise point is what philosophers like Syed Naquib Al-Attas criticised. The fact that secular progress is blind and aimless is a subtle aspect of the Western worldview that not many notice. Progress is only meaningful when it has purposeful goal, progress means becoming better with a vision of the perfect in mind for without a vision of the ideal state, the standard in mind, becoming better has no meaning. The process of “Becoming” only makes sense when the vision of the final state of being is clear, otherwise one would never be able to become anything for becoming something that itself is unknown or under construction would push one in an eternal conquest of chasing a delusion. Although there are temporary goals in the modern progressive worldview, these goals too ultimately are under the influence of progression and unfolding or the dictations of Time. Which makes the process of progress in itself the underlying governing equation of Human society and purpose. The western perspectives of success is the process of progress itself, meaning DEVELOPING for the sake of DEVELOPING only, because the very idea of Perfection and Goal is also under construction, the western man develops his own identity and purpose as they move along with time, they are always open and welcoming to all types of ideas, even the ones they themselves have rejected in the past, if now is the right time and the Stage of Modernity overlaps with the human will to maximise their desires, all ideas can be let in – thus making the Ambition (the purpose) of their progress itself a destination that is under progression as they move along with time. For what man wants to become, keeps changing, just as a child’s idea of what they want to be once they grow up. And in this current period of modernity, the Ambition of progress is understood to be technological/materialistic growth, that’s the current goal of the western man, a goal that was put in the picture by Killing god, and everything to do with the Sacred Teachings of the “people of the past”

At the present moment the purpose is to advance in technological progress, a materialistic outlook is the current stage of Western progress. It has stripped of the world and reality of its spirit, of the divine dependence on something beyond the outward physical. it views the world as a mere playground of physical composites and makes the destiny of human being to act as its authoritative Ruler. God being completely out of the frame, the identity of the western man is to be god himself, to run the affairs of the dunya on his own terms, the man of modernity is answerable to nobody and no ideology, he himself is the point of reference, he himself is definer of his destiny and his future self will be the only authority eligible of criticising him since future and present are always a better version of the past ideologies in the metaphysics of modernity. And to establish his dominion over the world is the destiny he has written for himself today. Under this worldview, to achieve materialistic success in the world, isn’t simply an option for the western society, its all there is to Man. Therefore when the west succeeds and outruns all the communities of the globe, often wowing everyone, they do so, not nonchalantly but Religiously because Materialistic success is the definition of progress at this moment in time, achieving it thus becomes the self-written destiny of the Western man. Consequently in modernity, there is nothing more to this life than maximising the Will and Desires of the acclaimed gods of this world, the western society. So, of course the west would achieve all the worldly success, of course they will be the flag bearers of Technological Advancements and Materialistic Growth at this point in time, because that’s their definition of success, their purpose of existence, their social identity. An identity through which although they have gained much superiority in the matters of worldly socio-economic dominance, but at the same time an identity which is eventually revealing the consequences of the heinous ethico- philosophical sacrifices it pushed under the carpet during its construction, to put it in economic terms – the interest for the loan it took to build its empires is unexpectedly biting back in unprecedented ways.

So, whenever anyone, any certain “physicist”, “journalist” or “podcaster” compares the success or ventures of their own society specifically with those of the west, they should keep in mind the Worldview that western society is built upon. One should always take in consideration that to judge one’s own level of success based on the standard of success of the west would be to judge one’s society through a definition of success that’s been philosophically constructed through Killing God, Subtracting the Sacred and Materialising the Purpose of Human Existence. So go ahead, compare a muslim society and its achievements through the definition of the Godless West.

Now if the western conception of success is built on a materialistic worldview, how would Islam define success?

“The Islamic Worldview”

When we talk about the Islamic “Worldview the first point to note is that the Islamic Worldview consists of both this world and its hereafter, the death and temporality of this world is an integral element of the islamic outlook on life. Islamic Outlook here is defined as a duality of Dunya & Akhirah. Success in the dunya henceforth, cannot be defined without taking into account the reality of Akhirah. If a society claims to follow the metaphysics of Quran and Sunnah, they can’t define their identity except through the guidelines of the revelation. Identities influence worldviews, as mentioned earlier – A muslim society on this principle has to view success under the lens of the Islamic Worldview. A muslim society then, cannot be successful in the dunya without achieving success of the akhirah because the world is temporary hence so are worldly achievements, true success for a muslim community then lies in such behaviour where the actions in this world are nothing but a fuel for success in the hereafter – a materialistically successful worldly abode would count as a loss if the Akhirah is lost.

Quran & Sunnah define the sole purpose of Humanity as the recognition and worship of Allah. An individual/ community that worships and understands Allah’s message better is closer to success than those who do not – making the obedience of Allah’s command the definition of success for a muslim society. Moreover the Perfect espiple of achieving absolute success has also been sent by God in the form of His beloved Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the example of a perfect community was created by the Prophet in the form of his companions and the city of Madina. Having the practice and conduct of the Prophet and his companions as the goals to achieve success, it’s almost safe to say that the muslims and the islamic society, in its very own definition of Success carries a tone of Regress rathern than Progress, in terms of morality and ethics (these being the core pillars of Islamic success) we are to follow a society and examples of the past rather than constructing our own morality with time, thus trying to ‘Regress’ towards the praxis of the Salaf. Allah narrates multiple times in the Quran, stories of past civilisations, who achieved materialistic ‘enlightenments’ and state of technological powers through ‘progressivé minds, only to be destroyed due to their progressive moralities and impure ethics. Which exposes the true value of a materialistic growth devoid of God-consciousness, modesty and piety. The anchor of success and development of a muslim society is nothing but divine ethics and morality, a regression to the revealed law on communal, ethical and moral grounds – this was the case that even the renowned historian of law Wael Hallaq makes in his book The Impossible State – the case of Revealed Morality and Ethics being the nucleus of an Islamic Society and its Identity

“An Islamic Successful Society

The job of an Islamic state is then to make policies which help grow the collective piety of the society. All the measures, in each department, economic, social or technological need to be implemented under the equation of bringing the society closer to Allah and His message. Under such a framework, a small village that lives in harmony, has educated God-fearing individuals, content families, care and respect amongst its residents, no criminal activity, with Good Health and ethically civilised manner of communal living would constitute as a highly successful society regardless of its infrastructure and technological achievements. Consequently the measure of success in a muslim society would be through the level of prevalence of divinely revealed ethics and morality rather than the quality of its technological achievements and infrastructure. All this is not to say that the Islamic definition of success necessarily excludes technological advancements, in fact technological developments help improve the state of a society on countless grounds – and this is the reason medieval muslim empires financed such scientific ventures. The point of the Islamic idea of success is that technological, infrastructural and scientific developments are only worth as much as they contribute towards bringing the society closer to knowing God and implementing His revealed conduct of life. If any materialistic advancement makes the life of muslims easier from merely a dunya-wi angle while pushing them away from the divine, such systems of technology and science are to be eliminated from the society as they oppose the very definition of success of a muslim society. Anything that facilitates the definition of success of the Muslim society would be integrated into the society, and everything that opposes the core values of the identity of the society would be eradicated, regardless of how OTHER societies view those integrations and eradications, a muslim society is only answerable to its own people who share the core principles (and hence critique the actions of their society through those principles and not to those who have totally contrasting worldviews through which they delusionally hold themselves to be the advocates of human rights all over the globe.

A Misplaced Objection

The West killed the sacred and the divine, tried to write its own destiny on its own terms believing there would be no consequences, indeed these are the people in delusion. So although the west did develop itself through a philosophical loan by eliminating revelation, but the interest on which they were granted this loan was the inevitability of emergence of west’s philosophical/spiritual hollowness. So to answer the objection, even the non-muslims let alone migrated muslims living in the societies of modernity want to escape the ideological monsters the western worldview has created in the form of the rainbow alphabets. The short sightedness of the creators of western philosophical thought although successfully caused a technological progress hence establishing themselves as THE ELITES of the world, but couldn’t foresee the deep philosophical dangers of worshipping the materialistic world through the holy command of their own desires. No Dunyawi success can be achieved on the cost of opposing the divine ethics except that its destined for self destruction. So anyone aware of the critical psychological and social states of these philosophically bankrupt ‘modern progressive societies wouldn’t want to even benefit from its Worldly benefits.

The Modern West enjoyed its superiority complex based on temporary leisure, received the praises of the entire world, except those minds who could sense the dangers of the sacrifices it made and pushed under the carpet thinking they would cause no consequences. Its only recently that the picture is getting clearer for the reflective minds, its only recently that people are figuring out the fact that the entire fortune, luxury and comfort of the west has been built upon a Worldview that was constructed by killing the divine and bulldozing the sacredness of the human and worldly nature. For decades the materialistic achievements and technological progress were packaged as the only solution to all the problems of mankind and for decades people bought the idea, being unaware of its philosophical assumptions – Its only recently that the success of Modernity has unveiled its Pharaohic nature. So once again, forget muslims, even the western sane minds are looking for the CtrI + Z (undo) option to save their future generations from “The Progress”.

Now many, with weak philosophical sights follow the arguments of those who themselves have no training in the metaphysical sciences. Often one would hear the pseudo-intellectuals come up with statements like –

“If you love Shariah so much, then migrate to Afghanistan or Saudi. Why do you these muslims shift to the west for improving their lives if its so much about their own identity and worldviews, and if the technological advancements are so secondary, why move to such advance states then, why benefit from their achievements?”

This is nothing more than a sandcastle critical thinking, those who put forward such arguments have missed the entire point of the discussion. And to clear such misunderstanding, one needs to refer back to the metaphysical Loan the western society took to fuel its materialistic success, whose interest is now biting them back. The west has advanced astronomically in infrastructure, technology and science, but again, that’s due to their definition of success and purpose of existence being nothing more than a materialistic progress, and in constructing this definitional outlook on life they made serious philosophical sacrifices, when bestowing God-hood upon their own desires and will they couldn’t realise its ultimate consequences. The point being that muslims and people from all over the globe have looked towards the west for migration and an improved lifestyle for decades, because the west indeed did achieve success in materialistic grounds and provide better living quality on materialistic grounds hence muslims benefitted through their productions (unaware of the philosophical undertones of the causes such improved lifestyle), however after years of being successful due to their Worldview, Now, in the forms of Radical Liberalism, Identity and Family structure crises, Nihilism and Spiritual hopelessness, the philosophical shortcomings of the west are coming to the surface.

Lastly

So yes, Kudos to the modern progressive societies for building such power economies, infrastructures and systems – only to eventually end up like firawn & nimrod simply due to lack of metaphysical consideration and only to eventually die from a rainbow coloured mosquito in your nose.