On the basis of all the principles mentioned above, al-FarabI proceeds with several corollaries scattered all over his works. The First Cause is only the proximate cause of the being of the secondary Intellects (Political Regime 31:12-13). Therefore, it cannot be viewed as the cause of what comes to be and passes away within the sublunary world. No divinity rules over the world (Perfect State 304:3-4). The doctrine of God’s knowledge of particulars is vehemently repelled (Political Aphorisms §86; cf. On De interpretatione 98:11-19). Those who claim some political authority received directly from God are impostors (Perfect State 258:4-9; 304-308:§12). One shall note here that the ‘‘Ancients’’ to whom R. Walzer’s translation attributes the doctrines stigmatized in Perfect State ch. 18-19 do not appear in the Arabic text. There is no inspiration (ilham) which could supposedly precede knowledge acquired through teaching (On Demonstration 82:1-8). About the philosopher-prophet of the Perfect State, al-FarabI explicitly states in the same work that he needs no prophetical insight, indhar. Philosophers are the only ones who can govern with knowledge of the true purpose of human existence, which is obtained through physical and metaphysical investigation (Political Aphorisms §94: 95, 14-96, 11; Attainment of Felicity §57: 186, 13-187, 5; Book of Religion 66:8-10). With regard to this knowledge, a ‘‘prophet’’ or enthusiast, miiJia ilayhi, cannot be said to be more knowledgeable than a soothsayer, kahin (Political Aphorisms §94: 98, 4-99, 2). ‘‘Revelation’’ (wahiy) is a word employed by the ancient philosophers to refer to the ‘‘conjunction’’ of the perfected human intellect with the Active Intellect (Political Regime 79, 3-80, 1). A true religion can only rely on a true, demonstrative philosophy (Book of Particles §147; cf. Attainment of Felicity §56: 184, 14-16), meaning that its founder must have been perfectly trained in demonstrative syllogisms. To sum up Political Regime 85, 12-87, 4 and 104, 17-105, 6: the symbols chosen and used by the philosopher-king in order to institute a true religion necessarily contain hidden contestable topoi, mawadt al-inad (cf. Book of
Dialectics: 361) - an allusion to Aristotle’s Topics VIII and Categories X. These topoi serve as a test. Those in the perfect city who succeed in detecting these dialectical topoi are apt to be instructed. Among those men, some are philosophers by nature and hence deserve to be elevated to demonstrative truth - a direct reference to Plato’s Republic and to the prisoner who has been untied and is given the chance to ascend out of the Cave (515c ss.). The men who, on the contrary, come short of perceiving the topoi embodied in the symbols are believers for whom philosophically chosen symbols are sufficient, meaning that these symbols incorporate all the truth needed for their mental capacity to be truly perfected.
Al-Farabi envisaged two possibilities: (a) a religion built on a perfect demonstrative philosophy, the perfect or virtuous religion whose dialectical or rhetorical premises (or tenets) have been defined by the philosopher who at the same time has the capacity to ascertain the truth and what truly is in the likeness of it - see Aristotle, Rhetoric 1355a 14-18 and cf. Book of Religion §4:46; Attainment of Felicity §53-54: 178-181; (b) religions built on various types of defective philosophy - Book of Particles §§108-158. Al-FarabI regarded all religious communities and political regimes in his day as depraved (fujUr), ignorant (i. e., of philosophy: jahiliyya) and in disarray (dalla), compare: Book of Religion 45:18-19; Summary of the Perfect State 86:10-12; Political Aphorisms §90: 92, 16-17; cf. Enumeration of the Sciences 107-113. Put together, these statements unambiguously mean that the perfect religion was still to be founded.
As for the relations between demonstrative philosophy and existent religions built on defective kinds of philosophy, he describes them as destructive of each other (cf. Aristotle, Physics, I 9, 192a21-22) He says:
> If the religion transferred to them [sc. a certain people] is a religion which stems in its very beginning from an ancient and corrupt philosophy, either rhetorical or dialectical or sophistical, and if the sound and demonstrative philosophy is then transferred to them after that, the latter will contradict that religion in all respects and this religion will totally contradict that philosophy. And then each of them will tend to annihilate the other. Whichever prevails in establishing itself firmly in the souls will annihilate (abtalat) the other and whichever takes over (qabarat) this nation will eradicate (abtalat) the other from it (Book of Particles §150, translated from M. Mahdi's unpublished and improved edition; cf. Book of Letters §150:155-156).
Above are some of the data which show why, in the Perfect State, al-FarabI purposely elaborates doctrines which seem at variance with his own thought. These doctrines are in fact symbols and contain mawadt al-inad, contestable topoi. The doctrine of prophecy, which cannot be philosophically conceptualized since God knows nothing but himself and hence cannot reveal anything about human affairs, is nonetheless tactically necessary to fulfill the purpose of the treatise. This means that the Perfect State is not a theory or description of the perfect city, but is, rigorously speaking, performative in the sense that it actually founds the city. The possible intelligent reader of the Perfect State is in fact the potential philosopher apprentice to whom al-FarabI alludes in the abovementioned crucial passage of Political Regime. The latter work represents the key to understanding what al-FarabI had in mind when composing the former: in order to be recognized as a philosopher apprentice, the reader of the Perfect State must be able to detect its mawadt al-inad or internal contradictions. This is why the Perfect State is performative: it brings together the fundamental conditions for the institution of the perfect state to take place. In other terms, the Perfect State was meant to bring to al-Farabl’s and his possible successors’ attention the individuals firstly capable of receiving a complete philosophical training and subsequently apt to become the rulers of the future perfect city. Such is the concrete historical meaning of the training of young philosopher-apprentices which is also briefly described in the Attainment of Felicity. In short, al-FarabI never departed from the view that the philosopher’s role is to teach and to rule.
The fact that the unity of composition of the Perfect State and the Political Regime has escaped interpreters’ attention can be explained by the prevailing approach which analyzes each treatise separately. In fact, al-FarabI’s work or at least his three main political treatises, the Perfect State, the Political Regime, and the so-called Political Aphorisms, first need to be envisioned and examined as an organic whole in order to then be understood individually. Al-FarabI alludes to the connection between these three works in his Summary of the Perfect State where he refers to seemingly unknown ‘‘Addenda’’ (ziyadat), the description of which coincides with the content of Political Regime and Political Aphorisms. M. Mahdi, who edited Summary of the Perfect State, was the first to suggest that the Political Aphorisms might be a part of the Addenda in question.
See also: > ‘AbdallatIf al-BajgdadI > Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus > Aristotelianism in the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew Traditions > Aristotle, Arabic > Contemplative Happiness and Civic Virtues > Ethics, Arabic > Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr ibn al-Sa’ijg (Avempace)
> Ibn Rushd, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Hafid (Averroes)
> Ibn Sina, Abu 'All (Avicenna) > Logic in the Arab and Islamic World > Modal Theories and Modal Logic
> Moses Maimonides > Natural Philosophy, Arabic
> Philoponus, Arabic > Philosophy, Arabic > Plato, Arabic > Translations from Greek into Arabic > Yalrya ibn 'Adi
World History
