Al Farabi’s Concept of Politics, Virtue, and

Justice

By: Sufyan Nasir (25983)

Ali Hamza (25948)
Maryam Ahmed (25994)
Muzaina Mateen (25949)
Al Farabi’s Concept of Justice Muzaina Mateen

Al-Farabi’s Concept of Politics

Sufyan Nasir
Al Farabi is one of the most influential Muslim philosophers in history. His work

revolves around the ultimate attainment of happiness, and he is inspired a lot by Plato and

Aristotle. For his peripatetic works, he was called “al-mu’ allim al-thani” or “The second

teacher”

Al Farabi’s political stance in all his teachings, was that humans cannot attain the perfection they

are destined for, outside the framework of political association. He stated that humans cannot

strive alone and need to be in a community which brings out their perfection. Farabi used to

compare his stances with the anatomy of humans to get his point carried ahead. He compared a

virtuous city to a healthy body, where the heart is the primary organ, and the secondary organs,

e.g., lungs, kidneys etc., work with the aim of perfecting the first rank or organ, and the third

rank organs with the second and so on (Al-Farabi, 1985, 237 and 239). According to Farabi,

there were certain chains of commands regarding human life.

Like a lot of the teachings of Farabi, he took inspiration from the works of Plato in the

world of politics too. Even his classification and composition of citizens was adopted from

Plato.In the world of Platonism, ranking of citizens can be seen such that Plato divided the

citizens into three categories: the first and highest class consisting of a head of state with

authority and power to govern and manage the state. The second class consisting of the armed

forces responsible for the state’s safety and security. And the third and lowest class consisting of

blacksmiths, merchants, farmers, or the common people with the task of producing all the

material requirements of the state.

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According to Farabi, humans were “political animals,” who could not live life without the

prospect of virtue and politics. He even stated how management could either be under a chief

ruler, or second ruler who imitates the chief ruler. “Real aim behind all the laws that the chief

ruler has created in the society should be to bring society to ultimate happiness”. He states that

such a religion can be the supreme religion (Al Farabi 2000:259). As his aim of politics revolved

around the achievement of happiness, he had predefined the qualities of a leader and a

prosperous city. Initially, relating to the First cause, he highlighted three divine personality

qualities of a leader. Firstly, the chief ruler is the governor of the society. Secondly, chief ruler is

a philosopher since he receives pure truth from a divine source, and lastly, the chief ruler is a

prophet since his regime and lifestyle are shaped directly in connection with the sacred one and

guide people at this point (Al-Farabi, 2000: 259). After these three divine personality

characteristics, he pointed out twelve natural qualities of a true chief leader

1. Should be free from all deficiency of limbs and organs

2. Should be good at understanding and perceiving

3. Should have good retention at what he hears and sees

4. Should be well provided with intelligence and very bright

5. Should have good dictation, and a good grasp on explaining his point

6. Should be fond of learning and acquiring knowledge

7. Should be fond of truth and honest men, and must hate falsehood

8. Should not have any cravings for worldly desires of food, drink, and sexual intercourse

9. Should be proud of spirit and fond of honor

10. Money should be of little amount in his view

11. He should be fond of justice

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12. Should be strong of his will, and in setting his mind firmly upon his views

Though Farabi related the chief ruler as a prophet and understood the teachings of the chief

ruler to be near those of the ultimate truth as the chief ruler gathers knowledge through divine

intervention, it would be a serious mistake to take all the teachings of the chief to be divine. Such

is the connection between Sunnah and Sharia. Some teachings of the sunnah have been intertwined

into the shariah as a teaching through the Chief of the Ummah, Prophet Muhammad. This

clarification was necessary as linking both teachings as word of God could have disastrous effects

on the Muslim population.

In his book the perfect state, he classified various kinds of cities regarding their role in

achieving happiness, which results due to the kinds of leaders of those cities. He mentioned a total

of five cities. One of them on the true path, and the other four gone astray. The city, which was on

the path of happiness, the Excellent city, follows all his conditions about the supreme leader or

Imam and his qualities. And opposing the Excellent city are the Ignorant city, the wicked city,

city which has deliberately changed character, and city which missed the right path.

Ignorant city is one whose inhabitants never knew the concept of happiness and the thought

of achieving it never occurred to them. This city is further divided into six more categories, all of

them having no idea of happiness and trying to attain other things in life as preference.

• City of necessity- people cooperate to attain more worldly materials like food, drink,

sexual intercourse

• City of Wealth- citizens regard money as sole aim of life

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• City of Depravity and baseness- the population will give preference to general

humanistic things such as food, drink

• City of honor- people will strive most for pride and honor, and splendor in front of eyes

of others

• City of power- civilians strive only to overpower others in life and gain enjoyment in

gaining power

• Democratic city- people wish to be free without any restrain

After the ignorant city come the wicked city, which has the views such as the excellent city

but actions of the ignorant city. Then comes the city which has deliberately changed its path from

that of the excellent city. It has gone astray and moved away from the characteristics of the

excellent city. And that city misses the right path has the same views of the excellent city, but the

first ruler would have been a hoax pretending to be receiving revelation (Al Farabi 1985, 257 and

259)

Overall, the main theme of Farabi and all his teachings, was the attainment of happiness

through the aspect of politics, all through the teachings of a prophetic Imam (chief leader).

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Arguments Against Al-Farabi’s Politics

Ali Hamza
Al-Farabi was one of the first philosophers in the Islamic world who not only displayed a

serious interest towards philosophy of society and religion, but also developed a highly

differentiated account thereof. He did not, however, start from scratch. At his time, many of

those philosophical texts which were actually translated from Greek (mostly through Syriac) into

Arabic were available, and al-Farabi was obviously an avid reader of his predecessors. Al

Farabi’s writings and work display an intimate familiarity with the works of Aristotle and Plato.

Through his writings, Al Farabi laid a focus on the political and social philosophy of the

Muslims. He presented his ideas for a virtuous city and laid out guidelines for an ideal Muslim

community. he established his virtuous city similar to the city of Plato. By merging philosophy

and politics in a creative way full of ideas, pointing to his views that were against division and

the multiplicity of leaders that were in the Abbasid state, at that stage, to regain their prestige and

greatness among other nations.

However, Al Farabi’s political philosophy has been subject to criticism because of his

extremism in linking politics and religion to an extent where he made the relationship between

them as a relationship of convergence and confusion as illustrated by his description of one of

the theocratic forms; one of its most significant manifestations is that: '' the link of the head of

the virtuous city with the active mind. In general Theocracy is a system of government where

priests rule in the name of the Gods or a god. However Theocracy contradicts with the Islam as a

religion because Theocracy authorizes absolute religious power and Islam does not have an

absolute religious power for everything has to be conveyed in the light of God’s teachings and

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his words as Almighty says in the holy Quran “ (But say not - for any false thing that your

tongues may put forth,- "This is lawful, and this is forbidden," to ascribe false things to Allah.

For those who ascribe false things to Allah, will never prosper?” [An-Nahl: 166].

Also, Islam does permit sole restricted religious authority to rulers as the Almighty says,

“And whose rule [in all matters of common concern] is consultation among themselves?” [Ash-

Shura:38]. This verse further explains that Islam focuses on mutual discussion and cooperation

for matters instead of a sole religious authority. The Islamic ruler is a deputy appointed by the

people for the people and they have the right to appoint him, monitor him and dismiss him.

Based on the foregoing, al-Farabi's political philosophy, despite its consistency with the Islamic

political perspective in many cases, is not consistent with him in the issue of the relationship

between religion and politics, because the Islamic political perspective makes the relationship

between religion and the state a relationship of unity and correlation (not a relationship of

confusion or congruence as In theocracy, as indicated above), because power in the Islamic

political perspective is restricted to concepts and values of universal rules.

Throughout the centuries Al Farabi has been criticized by some philosophers such as Al

Ghazali who has openly critiqued Farabi’s teachings and his Neo-platonic theory of emanation.

Al Ghazali presented a list of 20 propositions or questions ‘which are either fully or in part in

conflict with the fundamentals of religion [i.e., Islam] ‘. Of these questions, three of them

singled-out by him as particularly pernicious from a religious (Islamic) point of view: the

eternity of the world, the denial of God ‘s knowledge of particulars and the denial of the

resurrection of the body. On these three questions, the Muslim philosophers, with Al Farabi and

Ibn e Sina as their head, should be declared infidels i.e., kafir according to him. On the

remaining seventeen propositions, those philosophers should be declared heretics or

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innovators only. These less pernicious questions, in the opinion of Al Ghazali, include the

post-eternity of the world, a corollary of pre-eternity and the inability of the philosophers to

prove the existence of God, as Creator of the world, since they believed it to be eternal and

therefore requiring no creator.

Later in the 20th century theologian Said Nursi wrote a critique on Al Farabi and Ibn e

Sina’s mutual theory of emanation. the actual point that Nursi concerns behind his criticisms,

seems that these philosophers gave so much attention to the egotism by emphasizing the power

of human intellect, rather than the revealed knowledge through very much engagement with the

philosophy that Nursi opposes. When Ibn Sina’s and Farabi’s philosophical approaches in

various spheres are examined in general, it can be seen this point that the knowledge gained by

the human intellect or the process of thinking in interpretation of the universe as well as in

understanding God is highly important as the same as the role of religion or sometimes as lesser

than it in their writings.

Conclusively Al Farabi while being considered as the founding fathers of Muslim

philosophy has been subject to criticism for his theories by the new era philosophers. One of his

major criticism accounts on his teachings of relating the chief ruler as a prophet and for them to

receive divine knowledge as this seriously contradicts the Islamic teachings. Moreover, Al Farabi

was also criticized for his beliefs that this world is eternal which goes against the primary

teachings of Islam as our core belief is on the day of judgment. Additionally, Al Farabi’s claimed

that the model society should be ruled by a philosopher that is to imitate the universe being ruled

by God almighty and the philosopher must be able to comprehend what the truth is however only

so God almighty knows what is true and what is false.

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Al Farabi’s Concept of Justice Muzaina Mateen

Al Farabi’s Concept of Virtue

Maryam Ahmed
Virtue means having behaviour that shows high moral conduct. And high moral conduct

is doing what ought to be and showing principles of right and wrong. Virtue according to Al

Farabi means having the best moral qualities. Furthermore, Al Farabi says that virtue is of two

types: intellectual and ethical. Ethical virtues are courage, justice, generosity, etc. Intellectual

virtues are intelligence, wit, wisdom. Al Farabi says that only those people who are in possession

of both these virtues can truly be happy, otherwise the person will not receive complete

happiness. Also, he calls these people free in nature and that is the most crucial point in Al

Farabi's virtue. Al Farabi with his point of attaining true happiness is based on attaining all

virtues and has divided people into three distinct categories.

The first category is what he calls people free in nature. These people have attained all

virtues and Al Farabi considers them perfect. These people are resolute and reasonable. They do

not need to be supervised because they will not do anything wrong as they are perfect people and

have perfect morals. Moreover, they are resolute as well, so they stay on the right path. They are

unreasonable and do not have the determination. The second category is what he calls brutish

people. They do not have any morals, nor do they have the will to do anything correct. These are

the worst of humankind. The third category are slaves by nature, they are reasonable and will

have some sense of wrong and right. But they do not have the determination to always do the

right thing. Therefore, supervising them will be important and therefore they are slaves by

nature.

Education also plays an important part in Al Farabi's concept of virtue even though there

is no clear concept of how important education is, there are mentions that make it a key factor.

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However, our meaning of education differs from that of Al Farabi. According to us, education is

a means to study and earn money but according to Al Farabi, Education is the acquisition of

values, knowledge, and practical skills by the individual, within a particular period and a

particular culture. He believes that a person should start as soon as he is able to comprehend the

world. And therefore, start achieving his true goal in this world, which is attaining complete

happiness, and therefore being a perfect human or reaching his or her highest potential.

A perfect human is one who has acquired complete theoretical knowledge and therefore

has intellectual virtue and has perfected his practical moral values as well. These virtues that

have been acquired allows the perfect human to then be crowned with political leadership roles

and then becoming role models for other people. He, furthermore, also united aesthetic and

ethics. He says a good person is beautiful and a beautiful person is good. So, this perfect person

is beautiful and good at the same time.

Al Farabi's concept of perfection doesn't end at individuals, but also expands to societies.

He had a concept of a utopia called Virtuous City. This concept was inspired by Platonism, Neo-

Platonism and Aristotelianism. This city has the best state system which can find out the state

solutions to any problem. The ruler is one who is a perfect man, and the residents of the city are

those he calls free in nature or perfect men. Moreover, the hierarchy of the virtuous city reflects

the cosmological order. Al Farabi believed that life on this planet should reflect the magnificent

harmony of the cosmos. According to Al Farabi, a perfect society is impossible to build without

knowing the mysteries of world harmony

Al-Farabi is a known philosopher and is appreciated by the world, nonetheless, there are

critiques about some of his points. Firstly, it is impossible to achieve perfection. Michael A,

Slate also has written in his book about how it is impossible in principle to attain perfect

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happiness. He says “...ethical phenomena are far more complex and raise far more potential for

conflict and failure in values, than philosophers have been willing to recognise.” The

dependence, then, of attaining happiness on achieving perfection becomes irrational.

One argument that Slote raises is choosing between intimate relationships and pursuing a

career. If a human pursues a career, he will not have time for intimate relationships. And if he

makes time for his relationships, he will not have enough time to achieve self-fulfilment in his

career. So, there should be a balance between them and there is no perfect point on the spectrum

that is perfect. It depends on person to person. Another argument is choosing between tact and

frankness. If a man chooses tact, he is not being completely honest. And if a man chooses

frankness, he may seem unkind and may hurt people's sentiments.

Moreover, Ibn Arabi have said that the concept of Insan Al Kamil (Perfect man) applies

only to one person and that is Prophet Muhammad PBUH. Therefore, the rest of the humans on

earth are not perfect and do not have the option to achieve ultimate happiness. This, we can say,

is not completely true, as we do see people in this life happy and achieving their goals without

attaining all virtues. Moreover, his concept of a virtuous city is also impossible. He envisioned a

perfect city and believed that people will try to achieve it in hopes of attaining perfect happiness.

But Al Farabi sets the bar of his virtuous city so high, that it is virtually impossible to achieve it

and therefore people believe they have not attained happiness.

To conclude, Al Farabi’s concept of virtue is attaining all virtues will make a person a

perfect man and will therefore help him in achieving ultimate happiness. This concept of

perfection also extends to a city and this, Al Farabi calls a Virtuous City. There are some

critiques to his philosophy such as the impossibility of attaining perfection and the concept of a

perfect man and city.

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Al Farabi’s Concept of Justice

Muzaina Mateen
Justice is a philosophical concept that provides us with a principle of rightfulness. To

better gauge all that justice truly entails, we can investigate its two primary ideas which differ in

their conceptual structure. First is that of justice being the proper proportion between a person's

“desert” whether good or bad. This concept of desert has been used by many philosophers and

has been put into practical use as well when discussing the justification of penalties for violations

of law. Desert deals with ‘what one deserves.’ Second is that of justice being seen as the

deliverance of rights given to an individual by law, it is being entitled to a certain something due

to some action or entity that acts as the basis for that entitlement, it is a claim and deals with

‘what one’s actions earn them’ in other words it is a matter of claims that can be rightfully made

against the agent dispensing justice, whether a person or an institution. Entitlement is a

sociological concept yet that of desert is a purely normative one it does not depend on the

existence of laws or contracts. A point to note is that a person may be entitled to something but

not be deserving of it (an institutional desert) similarly, a person may be deserving of something

even though they are not entitled to it (a non-institutional desert)

The idea of justice occupies centre stage both in ethics, and in legal and political

philosophy, up to date it is still considered as the most significant among the four cardinal virtues

(the four virtues of mind and character in both classical philosophy and Christian theology)

which sets the basis of Aristotle's moral philosophy. It is also a significant concept in Islam and

the goal of Islamic law and society, the philosophical outlook of justice in Islam revolves around

“haq.” Theologically justice means ‘the observance of divine law.’

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Justice in the Quran has been mentioned multiplied times, below a verse is mentioned

that shows its importance and application.

“Stand up firmly for justice, as a witness to God, even as against yourselves or your

parents or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor.” Surah 4:135

(Meaning/implying that justice is for all).

Al Farabi, who is one of the most prominent classical thinkers believed that the ultimate

goal of life is to reach true happiness and for which an ideal political system needs to be in place

so that it may provide all the necessary conditions for suitable collaboration and solidarity

between humans in socio- political level. And he considers justice as an indispensable element

for achieving that perfectness on a greater level. Justice according to al Farabi is enforcing laws

that make sure that everyone lives in harmony and solidarity. In his work he greatly discusses the

concept of a virtuous city, which is his definition of an ideal society and where he uses justice as

a core principle that needs to be implemented for this society to function and for the peace to

sustain. Justice is a bond that joins men together in a society.

Al Farabi took inspiration from Plato’s Republic and Laws and enumerated twelve

qualifications for the ruler of his virtuous city; but there are three qualifications that are peculiar

to his list: (1) soundness of body, (2) eloquence and (3) love of justice. These three

characteristics drastically distinguish the ruler of Al Farabi from the philosopher king of Plato's

The Republic. The qualification of a ruler to love, support and do justice, but hate and abstain

from doing injustice highlights his role as a judge in the virtuous city. So, by observing Al

Farabi's work it can be inferred that according to him the concept of justice is that of entitlement

as Al Farabi makes it one of the important conditions for a ruler to be a judge. From a religious

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point of view Al Farabi's ruler being a judge who makes sure that justice is being prevailed on a

personal level instead of just providing guidance seems acceptable but keeping religion in mind

and taking a more contemporary approach to the concept of justice let us consider how what's

right is not always in black and white. So, if one is to say that for idealism to be achieved, we

need to carry the idea of a virtuous city out on a universal scale than having one leader with that

much responsibility makes the idea of virtuous city seem very impractical. Al-Farabi considers

justice to bear security, provided by Law. His Theory of Justice completes with confirmation of

rights and the necessity of their sanction by the government.

As discussed, earlier Al Farabi’s work on politics was greatly inspired by Plato and In the

Republic, Plato insists that justice must be one thing only, Therefore, Plato's quest for justice

advances through refutation and exclusion, i.e., by demonstrating what justice is not, in order to

arrive at a clear understanding of what it is. And if Al Farabi's ruler is to take a monistic

approach on justice and not a pluralistic one like that of Aristotle which, in contrast, accepts that

justice may be several different things, and especially that it may be seen in a number of different

ways, each of which may contain significant truth then a justice which is completely void of the

idea of desert will come to rise under the shade of what we may know as “absolute authority”. Al

Farabi's authority suggests that it is possible to justify a desert claim by identifying a currently

existing, actual institution/law according to which the deserver is entitled to the desert. A serious

objection arises from the fact that some of the institutions that exist are morally indefensible. Let

us imagine a thoroughly horrible social institution – slavery. “Suppose some unfortunate

individual is governed by that institution. Suppose the institution contains rules that say that

slaves who are strong and healthy shall be required to work without pay in the cotton fields.

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Suppose this individual is strong and healthy. Consider the claim that he deserves to work in the

fields without pay in virtue of the fact that he is strong and healthy.”

Al Farabi's justice implies that this desert claim is justified. That is as preposterous as it is

offensive as it implies that one deserves something if and only if he is entitled to it by the rules of

an actual institution. Now without a doubt al Farabi is assuming that in his virtuous city the

rulers sense of justice will always be morally and ethically upright, but there are cases in which

desert arises in the absence of an institutions, we can only deal with this if we alter the

institutional account of justification and make justice depend upon the rules contained in the

ideal institution of Al-Farabi i.e., his virtuous city and not on an entire social institution.

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