{"id":3045,"date":"2026-04-26T15:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/?page_id=3045"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:57:27","slug":"al-farabi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/?page_id=3045&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Al-Farabi"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"3045\" class=\"elementor elementor-3045\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-084c969 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"084c969\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-e66ef7d\" data-id=\"e66ef7d\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f032af2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f032af2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.11.1 - 15-02-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:right;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>**Al-Farabi**<\/p><p>**The Brotherhood of Religions and the Dignity of the Human Being**<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Al-Farabi (Abu Nasr) is one of the most prominent philosophers of Islam (260\u2013340 AH \/ 874\u2013950 CE). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the Islamic philosophical tradition and was honored by later philosophers with the title \u201cthe Second Teacher,\u201d after Aristotle.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>From my perspective, Al-Farabi was the first to present a profound Islamic philosophy of the brotherhood of religions and the dignity of the human being, grounded in a pure monotheistic principle: the emanation (fay\u1e0d) of beings from God. In doing so, he moved beyond the conventional theological view that God created some people for Paradise and others for Hell.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Perhaps Al-Farabi was also among the earliest thinkers to establish the principle of metaphorical interpretation (maj\u0101z) in religious texts. He argued that religions convey profound truths to the general public through narratives and symbolic representations.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Al-Farabi offers a conception of creation that differs from the traditional story of Adam and Eve and the tree. He speaks instead of creation through emanation, whereby existence flows from the Creator. Through this emanation, new realities come into being\u2014planets, humans, and matter\u2014each as an effect of the First Intellect, the divine principle. The created world is thus an outflow from the Creator, analogous to breath from a breathing person, speech from a speaker, or a shadow from a body. This ontological continuity between Creator and creation leads to a philosophical ethic of honoring creation as a reflection of divine generosity and to a vision of being as an ascending intellectual reality.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>For Al-Farabi, the created world is not inert or meaningless matter. Rather, it is a project of becoming, an intellect in continuous development, originating from the First Intellect. It is a dialectical process that renews itself in a continuous cycle, containing within it traces of divine reason and spirit. It resists corruption through an internal tendency toward perfection, selecting what is best and discarding what is deficient.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>He did not see this as contradicting Islamic revelation. Rather, he regarded it as consistent with its deeper meaning, as in verses such as: \u201cAnd He formed him and breathed into him of His spirit,\u201d and \u201cSay: All is from God.\u201d<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Al-Farabi repeatedly emphasized that the prophet is superior to the philosopher for the masses, while the philosopher is more appropriate for the intellectual elite. In doing so, he suggested that prophets did not present philosophical systems in abstract form, but rather expressed truth in a manner accessible to human hearts, while philosophers articulate it in conceptual clarity.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>He also affirms that goodness is the dominant feature of human existence, while evil is limited in scope. The will toward goodness overcomes the impulses of evil, and the divine project on earth is fundamentally successful and continuously unfolding. Humanity, in this view, is an emanation from the divine reality, and this understanding naturally supports a vision of universal human fraternity.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Al-Farabi authored a major work entitled *The Book of Religion (Kit\u0101b al-Milla)*, in which he discusses the beliefs and practices of society within the virtuous city. He writes: \u201cReligion is opinions and actions determined and regulated by conditions established by the first ruler for a group, aiming at a specific purpose for them or through them. This group may be a clan, a city, a region, a nation, or multiple nations. If the first ruler is virtuous and his leadership is virtuous, then he seeks through these laws the ultimate happiness for himself and for those under his rule. Such a religion is a virtuous religion.\u201d<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>In his major works *The Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City* and *The Book of Religion*, Al-Farabi presents the most ideal form of human association as one that emerges at the highest stage of intellectual and practical development. In doing so, he shows clear respect for human freedom in religious and philosophical choice, provided that it exists within a framework of social order and law.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>It is evident that Al-Farabi adopts a remarkably neutral stance in defining religion. He does not present himself as a missionary of Islam nor as an advocate for abrogating other religions. Rather, he treats religion as a social institution grounded in higher values, whose practical implication is the recognition of people\u2019s right to worship according to their beliefs within the framework of law or political order. This represents an early and significant contribution to the idea that human rights are the product of a collective intellectual heritage shared by philosophers, prophets, and sages throughout history.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>As for his view of the afterlife and bodily resurrection as described in the Qur\u2019an, Al-Farabi does not provide detailed discussion. However, he repeatedly affirms in *The Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City* that resurrection is spiritual rather than physical. The afterlife, in his view, is an intellectual existence, and the highest divine reward is the attainment of wisdom and philosophical perfection. This notion was later echoed by Muhammad Iqbal, who stated: \u201cParadise and Hell are states, not places.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>**Al-Farabi** **The Brotherhood of Religions and the Dignity of the Human Being** \u00a0 Al-Farabi (Abu Nasr) is one of the most prominent philosophers of Islam (260\u2013340 AH \/ 874\u2013950 CE). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the Islamic philosophical tradition and was honored by later philosophers with the title \u201cthe&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/?page_id=3045&#038;lang=en\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Al-Farabi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_canvas","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3045","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3045"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3049,"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3045\/revisions\/3049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-fraternity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}