The Goodly Life as the Ultimate Desirable Human Lifestyle According to Ṭabāṭabā’ī in al-Mīzān

“Life” and “death” are among the most frequent words that have grabbed the attention of people during the history. The minds of many scholars, philosophers, and religious thinkers had been engaged for long with exploring and explaining the meanings of these words. The Arabic forms of these terms (ḥayāt and mamāt) are also used in the Noble Qur’ān frequently in various forms with different meanings. In this paper, an attempt is made to give a clear picture of the qur’ānic plan for the ultimate desirable human life, called “the goodly life” (ḥayāt ṭayyiba), as the best form of human lifestyle according to the viewpoints of ‘Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī in al-Mīzān. After introducing the basis of his novel interpretive methodology, we proceed to examine the hidden layers of his idea on the goodly life based on his method. He, as the great contemporary Shī‘a exegete, finally concludes that those who have reached this level of life are a completely different type of human beings with their special properties different from the public.

Keywords:

‘Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī , Goodly life , human life , Islamic morality , Qur’ānic anthropology