those who keep their duty, who believe in the Unseen and keep up prayer and spend out of what We have given them, and who believe in that which has been revealed to thee and that which was revealed before thee; and of the Hereafter they are sure. These are on a right course from their Lord, and these it is that are successful1 (mufliḥūn)” (2:2-5). Falāḥ, the infinitive form of mufliḥūn, whether relating to this life or to the next, carries with it the idea of the complete development of the inner faculties of man and the achievement of both material and moral greatness; what, in other words, may be called the full self-development of man. This self-development is reached, according to the Holy Qur’ān, by the acceptance of three principles, the existence of God, His revealing Himself to man, and the Hereafter; and by the exercise of two duties, the keeping up of prayer, or seeking communion with God, and the spending of one’s wealth for others or the service of humanity. The place of prayer in the self-development of man is given such a prominence in Islām that in the call to prayer the words “come to prayer” are immediately followed by the words “come to falāḥ,” thus showing that self-development is attained through prayer. And on another occasion, the Holy Qur’ān says: “Successful indeed are the believers, who are humble in their prayers” (23:1, 2); where the word used for being successful is aflaḥa, carrying the significance of achieving full self-development.
Belief in God is the fundamental principle of every religion; nevertheless the object of religion is not simply to preach the doctrine of the existence of God as a theory; it goes far beyond that. Religion seeks to instill the conviction that God is a living force in the life of man; and prayer is the means by which it is sought to achieve this great end. The real conviction that God is comes to man, not by the belief that there is a God in the outer world, but by the realization of the Divine within himself; and that this realization is attained through prayer is made clear by what is stated in the beginning of the Holy Qur’ān, as quoted above. The three requisites of a true Muslim are there given in their natural order. The first is a belief in the Unseen, which means a belief in God, the great Unseen
1 Mufliḥūn is the plural of mufliḥ, which is derived from the root falḥ, meaning cleaving asunder a thing. Falāḥ, the infinitive form of mufliḥ, means success and complete attainment of what is desired (R.). The same authority says that falāḥ is of two kinds, one relating to this life and the other relating to the next. The former stands for the attainment of those good things whereby the life of this world is made good; and these are baqā (existence), ghinā (freedom from want, i.e., wealth) and ‘izz (honour). The falāḥ relating to the next life includes, according to Rāghib, four things that is to say, life with which there is no death, wealth with which there is no want, honour with which there is no disgrace, and knowledge with which there is no ignorance.