Abstract

According to Avicenna’s anthropology, soul reaches the intellectual pleasure through perception and achieves sensory pleasure through concupiscence, indignation, illusion, and imagination. On one hand, human’s happiness intrinsically finds its expression in having intellectual knowledge. On the other hand and according to earthly existence, happiness is portrayed as a sort of self-controlling. Human achieves happiness partially in earthly life, but the true and perfect happiness would be achieved in his life after death. Based on intellectual perfection, Avicenna classified people in various groups; First, the ones who are men of knowledge. They are happy in their earthly life and would obtain the highest levels of happiness in the hereafter. The second group, the average souls who complete the grades of perfection in intellectual aspect and practically have some deficiencies, would survive from misery by Allah’s mercy. However, the third group, those who neglect knowledge wouldn’t achieve happiness and would suffer from eternal misery. Avicenna is of the opinion that ignorance is an obstacle in the path of achieving the true happiness. Those who have knowledge but no virtue would achieve some levels of happiness in their earthly life and in hereafter would survive from eternal misery by purifying the effects of their bad deeds. Speaking of this group, Avicenna held that because they have the knowledge, the key to happiness, they would have a chance to compensation. Comparing the two later groups reveals that Avicenna considered intellectual perfection as the main reason for happiness.