God as Being in the Metaphysics of al-Farabi ‎

Document Type : The Quarterly Jornal

Author

‎. PhD, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy, Tehran, Iran. ‎

Abstract

Al-Farabi was the first thinker in the Islamic world to engage philosophically with the translation of Greek philosophical thought and the fundamental concepts of Aristotelian metaphysics. As he himself states, he learned the path of renewing and interpreting philosophy directly from the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. In his unique interpretation of the meanings of being (mawjūd) and quiddity (māhiyya), he categorizes being in its third sense—that which is distinct as a quiddity in external reality—into necessary and non-necessary beings. He elaborates on the characteristics of the First Necessary Being and argues that the non-necessary being is, in its very existence, impoverished, requiring fulfillment by the Necessary and Self-Sufficient Being. Al-Farabi emphasizes that all beings in the universe emanate from the First Being. Through his distinctive and theologically compatible interpretation of certain Aristotelian concepts, he shifts the focal point of Aristotelian metaphysics from being to God, laying the philosophical foundation of the Islamic intellectual tradition. His interpretation of being and quiddity clearly paves the way for their metaphysical distinction and facilitates the synthesis of Platonic illuminationist wisdom (al-ḥikmat al-ishrāqiyya) and Aristotelian philosophy in the Islamic world. This study, adopting a problem-oriented approach, seeks to examine, through textual evidence, how al-Farabi integrates a foundational interpretation of God as Being within Aristotelian metaphysics. Using content analysis, the paper concludes that al-Farabi, by offering a unique interpretation of the existential mode of beings and their quiddities or essences, establishes a distinct philosophical outlook within the Islamic intellectual tradition.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Aristotle. (2018). Metaphysics. (S. Khorasani, trans., 8th ed.). Tehran: Hekmat. [In Persian]
Davari Ardakani, R. (1998). Fārābī: the founder of Islamic philosophy. (4th ed.). Tehran: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. [In Persian]
Davari Ardakani, R. (2003). Fārābī: philosopher of culture. Tehran: Saghi. [In Persian]
Ehterami, R. & Pazooki, S. (2021). Origins of the problem of existence and quiddity and their metaphysical distinction in al-Fārābī’s Kitāb al-ḥurūf. Ḥikmat-i Sīnawī quarterly 25(66), pp. 99-124. Doi: 10.30497/AP.2021.241686.1551. [In Persian]
Fana, F. (2003). Aristotle’s theory of meanings and manners of existence. Mishkāt al-nūr quarterly, 6(22), pp. 71-96. [In Arabic]
Fārābī, A. (1984). Fuṣūl muntazaʿa. (F. Najjar, ed., 2nd ed.). Tehran: al-Maktabat al-Zahrāʾ. [In Arabic]
Fārābī, A. (1986). Kitāb al-ḥurūf. (M. Mahdi, ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq. [In Arabic]
Fārābī, A. (1987). Sharāʾiṭ al-yaqīn: al-manṭiqiyyāt li-l-Fārābī. (M. T. Daneshpajooh, ed., 1st ed.). Qom: Ayatollah Mar'ashi Library. [In Persian]
Fārābī, A. (1990). Al-Wāḥid wa-l-waḥda. (M. Mahdi, ed.). Casablanca: Dar Toubkal li-l-Nashr. [In Arabic]
Fārābī, A. (1995). Ārāʾ ahl al-madīnat al-fāḍila wa-muḍāddihā. (Commentary by Ali Bu Mulham, 1st ed.). Beirut: Maktabat al-Hilāl. [In Arabic]
Fārābī, A. (1996). Al-Siyāsat al-madaniyya (prefaced by Ali Bu Mulham). Beirut: Maktabat al-Hilāl. [In Arabic]
Fārābī, A. (2018). Maqāla fī aghrāḍ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa. (L. Kiankhah, ed., 1st ed.). Tehran: Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy. [In Arabic]
Ibn Rushd. (1993). Tahāfut al-tahāfut. (M. al-Uraybi, ed., 1st ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. [In Arabic]
Kiankhah, L. (2018). Metaphysics from the perspectives of Fārābī and Avicenna. (1st ed.). Tehran: Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy.
Menn, S. (2008). Farabi’s Kitab al-Huruf and his Analysis of the Senses of Being. Arabic scince and philosophy, (18), pp. 59-97.
Shahidi, F. (2014). Existent and existence in al-Fārābī’s Kitāb al-ḥurūf. Jāvīdān khirad quarterly, 11(25), pp. 55-76. Doi: 20.1001.1.22518932.1393.11.25.3.1. [In Persian]

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics