أفلح
Aflaḥa
To succeed in one’s endeavour; the Quran uses it for the believers who attain lasting success.
What it means
The verb aflaḥa means to succeed, to flourish and to reach what one strives for. The twenty-third surah opens with it: “Successful indeed are the believers” (23:1), and it goes on to name humility in prayer, avoidance of idle talk, giving zakāh and guarding chastity (23:2–5). The noun falāḥ comes from the same root, and the call to prayer invites people with the words ḥayya ʿalā l-falāḥ, “come to success”. Success in this sense is measured by a person’s standing before God, so it includes this world and the next.
Often misunderstood as
“Success” in English usually means worldly achievement, whereas falāḥ in the Quran extends to the outcome in the hereafter.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 43, listed as AFLAḤA. The definition is restated here.