ABSTRACT
This chapter is an initial examination of the Qur’anic attitude to happiness and pleasure in the world. It argues that taking pleasure in the world is an integral part of gratitude to God in the Qur’an and is, therefore, an integral part of Qur’anic virtue and piety. This attitude may, in part, have been a response to dominant forms of Christian piety at the time, which involved the renunciation of certain worldly pleasures and which had a dominant emotional orientation of fear of God. In contrast, the Qur’an warns against people making unlawful the good things that God has provided, and fear of God is balanced with enjoyment; but virtuous enjoyment is tempered towards things and people in this world, while stronger rejoicing should be reserved for the appreciation of God and the Qur’an itself. Unvirtuous happiness, practiced by the unbelievers, is to rejoice too much in the things of the world, to rejoice in others’ misery, and to mock the believers. The chapter suggests that this attitude towards emotional temperance shows not only how the Qur’anic community of believers is constructed around particular emotional practices, but also how feeling correctly is a fundamental part of moral understanding. In short, virtuous feeling is integral to proper thinking.
