Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought by Namazi Rasoul

Author:Namazi, Rasoul
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2022-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

Alfarabi and Islam

In an age where religion has acquired the status of personal beliefs and of lifestyle, to question the religious beliefs of a past philosopher, let alone a Muslim philosopher, seems a rather outmoded subject of study.16 Strauss, on the contrary, since his early studies, shows a rather curious interest in this question, and the conflict of Reason and Revelation remained one of the major themes of his studies throughout his life. Considering the unusual character of this form of scholarship in the eyes of modern scholars, it is not surprising that some have criticized Strauss’s view of Islamic philosophy precisely because he sees it through the lens of the conflict between Reason and Revelation: they have even gone so far as to question whether such an inquiry, to which someone like al-Ghazali dedicated a substantial treatise and to which Averroes responded, was really a major issue at the time.17 Strauss’s engagement with Alfarabi’s esotericism is above all the reflection of his concern with the question of Reason and Revelation. If Alfarabi practices esoteric writing, it is above all because of his unorthodox religious ideas. Strauss claims that one must be aware of the peculiar situation of medieval thinkers in general and Alfarabi in particular: the Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle were often free to state their doctrines because they were in most cases “under no compulsion to reconcile” them with “the requirements of faith” (¶ 15). Alfarabi and his companions were in a different position and had to take precautions in stating doctrines in contradiction to Muslim beliefs.

Strauss mentions five different views of Alfarabi which he believes are stated esoterically because they are incompatible with Islam. The heterodox doctrine which, more than any other, appears to be at the center of Alfarabi’s Plato, is that philosophy on its own is sufficient for achieving happiness. This doctrine, which Strauss attributes to Alfarabi, is rather incompatible with the primary impression one gets from reading Alfarabi’s treatise. Why does Strauss have a different interpretation of Plato? Let us follow his argument: In his treatise, Alfarabi explains that Plato’s investigations were guided by the question of the perfection of man, of his happiness. According to Alfarabi’s Plato, man’s perfection is inseparable from two things: a certain science and a certain way of life. Plato’s investigation led to the conclusion that the desired science is provided by philosophy and the desired way of life is the result of the royal or political art. Plato also concluded that the philosopher and the king are identical, and therefore these two arts are synthesized in the person of the philosopher-king. Plato defines philosophy as “the science of the essence of each of all beings,” as “the art of demonstration,” and therefore simply identifies the main subject and the method of philosophy as entirely different from the subject matter of political philosophy and its method. When Plato distinguishes between the science and the way of life which contribute to the perfection and happiness of man, the

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