Introduction
Born in Farab on 870 AD (approximately), Abu Nasr al-Farabi was a Muslim philosopher, logician and a significant political scientist. He took his major education in Baghdad and then after gaining the command over Arabic language he spent a considerable time under his teacher who was a Christian savant named as Abu Bishr Matta bin Younusand. Al-Farbi in this life also lived at various places including Syria, Egypt and wrote a few books during his stays. In the world of philosophy he is referred as the “Second Teacher” (Aristotle being the first) because of his vast analysis on Aristotle and his work in logic. He is also titled as the “Father” of Islamic Neoplatonism because he was the first Islamic philosopher to draw a line between philosophy and religion, and he also gave priority to reason over revelation as a source of truth.
Al- Farabi also made a huge contribution in the shape of his books named as Kitab al-musiqa al-kabir (The Great Book of Music), Madina al-fadila (The Virtuous City), Risala fi'l-'aql (Epistle on the Intellect), Kitab al-huruf (The Book of Letters) and Kitab ihsa' al-'ulum (The Book of the Enumeration of the Sciences). He then died in 950 AD (approximately) even though the cause of his death is not clear, some accounts show him dying naturally in Damascus while the other opinion that exists is that he was killed rather than dying naturally. In general also, very little is known about the personal life of Al-Farabi because unlike other few thinkers he did not write his autobiography.
Views of Al-Farabi
Al-Farabi in general can be discussed from many aspects, but if we consider the political views of Al-Farabi then we can deduce that he was a fine political scientist and had a keen interest in the field of Islamic political history and kept very strong and clear views on the concept of ideal state, the form of its head and the theory of caliphate.
Ideal State
According to Al-Farabi, the city of Medina was in its ideal state when Muhammad (PBUH) was alive and he himself was heading the state but after he left this world, in his absence democracy is the closest form of the ideal state. Al-Farabi has given his analysis on both of the cases the head of virtuous as well as of the non-virtuous cities, the Imam will be the one who will be the ruler of the virtuous city and also of the entire world in general.
The description of the two types of cities, virtuous and non-virtuous that Al-Farabi introduced is mentioned below:
Virtuous city
Al- Farabi in continuation to this, has given his views specifically about the virtuous city that it is the political framework through which the ultimate goal of the humans that is happiness will be accomplished, and we can only have virtuous world when the people will co-operate with each other in a community in order to achieve happiness. Here Al-Farabhi opinions about the people of this city that they are held together for few purposes, like at the first place they should gain the knowledge about the actual cause of our existence and then should also gain knowledge about the material things in this world. This is also similar to the concept that first should obtain information about the spiritual existence and then about the physical one.
The people of virtuous city other than this should also acquire knowledge about the will and choice of humans, the system of hierarchy like the chief ruler and its subordinates, the nature of happiness, and the nature of revelation of holy books.
Non-virtuous cities
In comparison to the qualities of virtuous city there are also cities which are non-virtuous and contains opposite qualities, Al-Farabi has given views that there few kinds that emerge from the non-virtuous cities. They are described below:
State of Necessity (Daruriya)
It is a type of ignorant state where the purpose of the people in the community is just to obtain the necessities of life like food, clothing, shelter, etc. And the people cooperate and help each other to get these necessities.
Vile State (Nadhala)
In this type of state, the people aim to get wealth and get rich because this is what satisfies them the most.
Base and Despicable State
This is the state where the people living seeks for the pleasure, they first obtain the necessities, then huge amount of wealth and then finally spends it to obtain pleasure. The pleasure can be in the form of games, jokes, eating, etc.
Timocracy (Madina Karama)
This is the state which works for honors. The people in the state help each other to get honors, honors can be because someone’s personality deserves it and can also be because someone has abundant wealth and thus is superior.
Tyranny (Taghallub)
This is the type of state where the people cooperate to get victory over other, and this is what gives them the satisfaction.
Democracy (Madina Jama’iya)
It is the state where everybody is equal and has the freedom to do whatever they want to do, but there is a governing body which itself is chosen by the people of the state.
The need for a ruler
Al-Farabi also provided his opinion on why there is a need for a ruler. He made the human nature basis for this need because this is a part of the human nature that we can’t live isolated and can’t survive only on our own we need someone to look after us and provide us the guideline. Since Al-Farabi is considered as the father of Neoplatonism so he put forwarded the idea Plato with more Islamic context, as Plato considered philosopher-king as the ruler Al-Farabi rejected this concept and considered philosopher-Imam as the ruler.
Theory of Caliphate
Considering the virtuous city, according to Al-Farabi the one meeting the following qualifications is eligible to become the ruler of virtuous city which is Imam:
• The ruler should be physically fine in order to perform the duties in an efficient manner.
• The ruler should be mentally sound in order to understand everything and respond accordingly.
• He should be able to keep things in his mind, whatever is sees, hear, or understands and should be intelligent in order to grasp things quickly.
• He should have the personality through which he can get the things done promptly without giving much justifications and getting into huge discussions.
• He should have strong love for seeking knowledge and the ability to communicate the exact thing that he want to, without any problem.
• He should be the one always striving for good deeds and not even thinking of travelling through the wrong path.
• He should not be very much quick reactive, he should be able to control himself. Whether it be anger or any sort of passion, self-control is required.
• He should keep a very clear opinion against injustice and should always follow the path of justice, and also should be able to take fair decisions.
• He should have no interest and love for the money and the physical goods present in this world.
• He should be brave to take decisions, and being firm he should not step back once the decision is taken.
Since Al-Farabi considers virtuous city as the ideal one where the people strive for happiness so he also thinks that the ruler should also be the one who is ready to take charge of this objective to obtain true happiness in the society, because according to him once happiness is achieved humans does not need anything else to satisfy themselves.
Conclusion
Finally, with the Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s monarchic concept in mind Al-Farabi presented his own view of perfect state and the ruler. Being a political scientist he was able to analyze this whole structure quite well. Other than his views in politics, his other contributions cannot be ignored which he made in different fields. With his political view, he provided a complete structure of how the state should be, how the ruler should be and how the people of the state should act. He made the things easier by making a distinction between virtuous and non-virtuous cities so that the qualities of both the political frameworks can be observed and the path to the ideal state should be created. But he also made this clear that to attain the perfect and ideal state the ruler has to play a vital role by working for the objective without which the state cannot progress and he also mentioned how a head of the state should be like. But Al-Farabi also have made the people of the state an important part of the progress, he has considered the different objectives of the nations as a whole which either make them an ideal state or an ignorant one, but proper political system and ruler can help the nation achieve the status of being ideal.