The Great Success (fawz ʿaẓīm)

The perfection of success (fawz) lies in being delivered from defect and deficiency and attaining safety and soundness. This comprehensive concept has many instances. The Qur’an sometimes mentions the title of success (fawz) in terms of deliverance from divine punishment: “So do not suppose them to be secure from punishment”,(392) and sometimes names it due to attaining Paradise: “Allah has prepared for them gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them forever. That is the great success”,(393) and sometimes with consideration of both mentioned aspects, such as: “Whoever is delivered from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has certainly succeeded.”(394)

The title “success” (fawz) is sometimes described with the attribute “great” - as in the verses that were recounted earlier - and this attribute, namely greatness, has degrees that differ from one another: the great success that is perceived in the sensible Paradise is not the same as the great success that is in the intelligible and spiritual Paradise; let alone the great success that combines both Paradises.

The verse under discussion can consider the combination of the sensible Paradise and the station of divine pleasure (riḍwān) as the great success, not specifically the station of divine pleasure alone; although by the context of the verse “God has promised the faithful, men and women, gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them [forever], and good dwellings in the Gardens of Eden. Yet God’s pleasure is greater [than all these]; that is the great success”,(395) it can be inferred that the station of divine pleasure is greater than the sensible Paradise, consequently the greatness of its success is more than the greatness of the success of the sensible Paradise; then in the final synthesis, confidence is achieved that the combination of the abode of Paradise and the station of divine pleasure will be the great success in absolute terms, and the verse under discussion is also of this type.

Note:1. Jurists (fuqahāʾ) in jurisprudential books, to convey the importance and greatness of a matter, say that “this legal ruling (fatwā) is more famous (ashhar), indeed famous (mashhūr),” because famous is higher than more famous: more famous means that in opposition to this matter, there is an opinion that has fame; but the legal ruling has greater fame; and famous means that this matter has been accepted by the majority of jurists and is famous among them, and in opposition to it is an anomalous (shādhdh) and rare opinion.

The two attributes “great” (ʿaẓīm) and “greater” (aʿẓam) are likewise: in opposition to “great,” “insignificant” (ḥaqīr) is placed; unlike “greater” which has great and magnificent things in opposition to it; but this is greater than those, therefore reaching the station of divine pleasure is “the great success” in opposition to which other things are insignificant and base.

2. Some exegetes (Fakhr Rāzī) after the apparent exegesis (tafsīr) of “great success” (fawz ʿaẓīm) and considering it the apparent position of the theologians (mutakallimūn), said thus: But according to the possessors of souls illuminated by the lights of God’s majesty (jalāl), strange secrets are presented under the meaning of divine pleasure (riḍwān) that pens do not have the power to explain. May God make us among its people… Since it has been established among the possessors of lips and hearts that all of Paradise in relation to God’s pleasure is like non-existence in relation to existence, how could it not be so, while Paradise is the object of desire for lust (shahwa) and divine pleasure is an attribute of the Truth (God), and what correspondence is there between them? This matter is something that the nature of the apparent theologian finds repugnant; but “each is facilitated for what he was created for.”(396)