Analyzing Well-Being Models: Their Evolution, Limitations, and Future Pathways

Abstract

This article critically examines the evolution, limitations, and future trajectories of well-being models from antiquity to contemporary discourse. Employing interdisciplinary synthesis and comparative analysis, the study traces well-being conceptualizations from Aristotelian eudaimonia and hedonic traditions through Enlightenment utilitarianism to modern frameworks including Ryff's Psychological Well-Being, Seligman's PERMA model, Self-Determination Theory, and ecological models. A central argument advanced is that dominant Western paradigms exhibit systematic biases—individualism, cultural reductionism, measurement fetishism, and commercial appropriation—that undermine their universal applicability. The article provides an original, mandatory deep analysis of the Islamic well-being paradigm grounded in Falāḥ, sakīnah, tazkiyah al-nafs, and Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, incorporating Qur'anic textual evidence and classical scholarship from Al-Ghazālī, Ibn Khaldūn, Shāh Walīullāh, and Ibn Taymiyyah. Methodological critiques address Western-centrism, digital-age mental health challenges, inequality, and ethical concerns surrounding happiness commodification. Future pathways propose holistic, cross-cultural, spiritually integrated models and policy frameworks for sustainable well-being. The article concludes with original theoretical contributions synthesizing Eastern and Western epistemologies, offering a multidimensional, context-sensitive paradigm for twenty-first-century global challenges.