If the World’s Elite and Its Wealthy Truly Wanted a Better World – Mohammad Korani- If the world’s elite and its wealthy truly wanted to make the world a better place, perhaps the first thing they would need is not a new human-devised plan, but rather a measure of humility before God. For no matter how far wealth, knowledge, technology, and positions of influence may reach, the human being remains a finite creature of limited knowledge, often governed by their own desires, fears, anger, envy, ambition, and personal interests. Therefore, merely possessing money or power does not qualify anyone, in any absolute sense, to chart the future of all humanity. Have you not experienced problems in your families and close circles, like the rest of humanity? If so, then you are like all other human beings—incapable of devising sustainable, permanent, or even long-term plans genuinely beneficial to humanity.
From the Shi’a Islamic perspective, the problem begins here: if humanity wishes to reform the world, it must first strive to be righteous, and it must seek guidance from the Creator of humanity and the universe. God, in this conception, is not merely an eschatological idea; rather, He is the source of human knowledge of its own nature and innate disposition (fitra), and the source of the criterion by which humanity can distinguish between what truly brings happiness and what it imagines to be happiness while it is, in fact, another form of enslavement.
Here, the school of Islamic Shi’a thought—rooted in spirituality (‘irfan) and wisdom (hikmah)—offers a distinct vision of worldly happiness. The ultimate goal is not merely the increase of consumption, wealth, and production, but rather the cultivation of a balanced and just human being from within, a balanced and just society from without, and a beautiful, happy life in harmony with human nature.
Justice begins with individual justice: that human beings learn to control their anger, desires, greed, envy, and love of domination. It then extends to social justice: where power, wealth, and knowledge are not transformed into tools for subjugating others, but become instruments for development and service to humanity. As for fitra (innate nature), it signifies that human beings possess deep needs that cannot be reduced to money and consumption: security, family, love, dignity, knowledge, beauty, belonging, meaningful work, and the ability to realize their talents. Indeed, fitra reveals a profound truth: that the human being, society, and leadership cannot be sustained by high ideals alone; rather, preserving these standards requires a special environment and conditions—what we call education (tarbiyah) in eternal, divinely-inspired moral values.
From this perspective, a happy world is one in which human beings can live with dignity, establish families, learn, work, create, enjoy beauty, and benefit from security, health, and responsible freedom—without being reduced to slaves of the market, technology, power, or money.
Yet the Shi’a vision extends even further; it holds that civilizational deviation did not begin today, but is tied to a historical deviation from the path of divinely-guided leadership that God intended. From this reading emerges the concept of the usurpation of the rightful Caliphate, the killing of the true successor (al-wasi), and the tragedy of Karbala and Ashura—which, in Shi’a belief, represents a pivotal turning point in the deviation of humanity’s civilizational trajectory. Therefore, according to this vision, it is not enough to reform certain economic and political institutions; rather, humanity and civilization must be redirected back to the correct divine path.
This raises a matter of supreme importance: if humanity desires a better global civilization, it needs a new kind of leader—one whose qualification is not measured merely by wealth, intelligence, popularity, or ability to dominate, but first and foremost by their ability to master themselves. A leader who can restrain their desires when holding power, their anger when provoked, their greed when facing wealth, and their envy when witnessing the success of others—one who places their intellect and wisdom above the impulses of their ego.
From here, one can understand the project of the gnostics and sages (‘urafa’ wa hukama): the ideal is that the world be governed by individuals who have attained near-infallibility (‘isma). All people appear equal on the surface, like the surface of the sea; yet only the Creator knows the true depths within each individual. Moreover, this leadership must be cultivated through generations of scholars, leaders, thinkers, and administrators trained in self-purification, justice, humility, and self-accountability—so that the administration of civilization becomes an extension of the well-disciplined individual’s governance of their own soul.
This is the fundamental distinction from many modern human projects: the problem is not that the global elite do not want a better world; rather, the problem is that the human being—no matter how vast their knowledge or wealth—remains susceptible to error, bias, self-interest, anger, and greed. Therefore, a project that claims the ability to engineer humanity’s future without a transcendent reference point beyond human whims remains vulnerable to becoming, unintentionally, an engineering of human beings according to the interests of those who devise the plan.
In sum, true happiness, wholesome enjoyment, and sustainable delight in this world—and from this world—require educational and developmental cycles that we call Fiqh al-Hayat (the jurisprudence of life), which is as essential as reason and the five senses are for the experience of enjoyment.
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As for the Islamic project, in this vision, it proceeds from a different foundation:
We do not wish to make humanity into a god that plans for humanity—as we see today, where humanity believes itself to be the center of the universe and the center of all existence. Rather, we wish for humanity to humble itself before God, and then learn how to build the earth in accordance with divine guidance, justice, and innate nature (fitra).
Then the coming civilization will not merely be one that is wealthier, smarter, or faster; it will be more beautiful, more just, and happier—a civilization in which Westerners and Easterners, rich and poor, religious and non-religious, can all find a more dignified and humane life.
For even the wealthy themselves—even the financial and political elites—need this civilization. Because money does not cure envy, anger, loneliness, fear, loss of meaning, or inner conflict. Therefore, liberating the poor from oppression and liberating the rich from the bondage of wealth are both integral parts of the project of worldly happiness.
Thus, the real question for the world’s elite becomes not: How can we, by ourselves, create the ideal world? Rather, it is: Are we first ready to admit that we are not ideal, and to ask God for guidance and knowledge of the path that truly reforms humanity and the world?
From here, in the Shi’a perspective, the idea of the bright upcoming global civilization—emerging from the Islamic human sciences—begins: with the reform of the individual, then the reform of leadership, then the reform of society, then the reform of civilization; not merely through the display of competitive markets, chaotic technology, and obtuse institutions.
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