SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE - Deneme Sınavı - 7

Fuqaha is the plural form of faqih. Faqih is the person who either is specialized in the Islamic science of law (ilm al-fıqh) or the execution of law.

The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The following signify the determining role of asabiyyah on ‘umrân: 1. States-especially the great ones- depend upon ruling through lineage and/or alliance; 2. The great state is the one in which rulers succeed one another in a long period of time; this is the fundamental rule in sovereignty and applies until the decay; 3. The rightful ownership is taken from the hands of those who lost it through the asabiyyah possessed.

The state/mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn, is a necessary being for providing the comfort for human societies, who by nature tend towards welfare and comfort.

When we quickly look through the history of thought in the Islamic world after the death of Averroës (1198), we see that the Islamic civilization, in terms of flourishing philosophical thought and/or originality/productivity, has started to vanish.

Averroës, different from Al-Fârâbî, evaluates the relationship between philosophers and nonphilosophers as static.

Al-Mâwardi’s requirements for being a caliph:  The caliph, on his view, must be:

1.Just,

2. Possessing full knowledge of the shari‘ah to be skilled in independent interpretation (ijtihâd),

3. Good in overall health-especially in terms of
sight, hearing and speech,

4. Physically sound and not disabled from movement,

5. Good in administration,

6. Brave and courageous enough to declare war and fight against enemies,

7. In relation with (a descendant of) the family of Quraish (ibid).

Related with the social side of religion, Avicenna added a fourth tract to practical philosophy (in addition to ethics, household management, and politics), which he called “the discipline of legislating”.

His direct resources of inspiration included Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Plato’s Republic, and Aristotle’s Politics. Thus, the correct answer is E.

According to Farabi, requirements of common knowledge among the members of the perfect state include the material existents-including the active intellect, the celestial substances, the first ruler, the first cause and all its qualities, but the balance between man and animal. Thus, the correct answer is A.

“In the Latin West, his metaphysics and theory of the soul had a profound influence on scholastic arguments, ın the Islamic East, too, he was the basis for considerable debate and argument. Even the philosopher-theologian Al-Ghazali, in his attack (The Incoherence of Philosophers) admitted that no serious Muslim thinker could ignore him. In general, Avicenna could be claimed to be the principal representative of philosophy in Islam.” Thus, the correct answer is B.

In the middle ages, this strong relation between jurisprudence and politics was much emphasized by Al-Mawardi, who could be claimed to be the first Islamic poitical scientist. Thus, the correct answer is E.

Fasl al-Maqal is the work where Averroes’s fundamental assumption on the relation between philosophy and religion is expressed clearly. Thus, the correct answer is D

The three methods of persuasion are demonstrative, dialectical, and rhetorical—applying to different groups in the society: the first, to philosophers; the second, to theologians; and the third, to large masses. Thus, the correct answer is C.

Asabiyyah is a fundamental factor which puts human beings into wars against one another for sovereignty and for founding dynasties and states. Thus, the correct answer is A.

According to Ibn Khaldun, mulk is the necessary condition for the establishment of social lives in towns and cities. Thus, the correct answer is C

In The Muqaddimah, the term ‘umran’ bears several meanings such as to settle down, building up a construction, visiting a location, and taking care of a given place, but not evacuating a location. Thus, the correct answer is D.

According to The Muqaddimah, the power of muk is materialized only through the execution of law, development cannot be achieved without justice, wealth cannot be acquired without development, the major criterion Allah will evaluate humans is justice, and people cannot survive without acquiring wealth. So, the correct answer is A.

Al-Fârâbî’s written works on politics-as well as his other works on philosophy- appear to have a familiarity with Plato and Aristotle. However, when political philosophy is the case, his direct resources of inspiration are as follows:

However, his major works The Perfect State, The Political Regime or The Principles of Beings begin with a metaphysical part presented as a descendant of Neo-Platonic legacy followed by a second part dealing with the organization of the city or state and do not treat of being and unity as the most universal notions. The hierarchical structure of the ideal state reflects purely the hierarchical emanationist structure presented in the first part. As is also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. When political philosophy is the case, “Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics”,  “Plato’s Republic” and  “Aristotle’s Politics” are his direct resources of inspiration. “The Perfect State” The Political Regime” and The Principles of Beings are his major works.

Al-Fârâbî argues directly that true philosophy “was handed down to us from the Greeks from Plato and Aristotle alone”. According to Al-Fârâbî, human beings collaborate as societies “in order to preserve [themselves] and to attain [their] highest perfections”. Without this, he emphasizes, “man cannot attain the perfection, for the sake of which his inborn nature [fitra] has been given to him”. In function of their size, associations can or cannot furnish the basis for a “perfect [kâmil] society”.

This way of perfection attributes a goal to society, namely, true felicity (sa‘âdah). On Al-Fârâbî’s view, a city “… in which people aim through association at cooperating for the things by which felicity in its real and true sense can be attained, is the virtuous city [madina fâdıla], and the society in which there is a cooperation to acquire felicity is the virtuous society [ijtima‘ fâdıl]”.

Al-Fârâbî also shares with Aristotle the claim that attaining the highest possible degree of perfection entails happiness; moreover, happiness is one of the key concepts of his thought. Al-Fârâbî’s conception of happiness is rather different from that of Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia, because ultimate happiness, for Al-Fârâbî, is a state associated with the afterlife, when, the soul has separated from the body-regarding his conception of the soul. But how is ultimate happiness attained? Al-Fârâbî proposes an answer in line with the Ancient Greek thought; pointing out to a faculty which provides human beings with provision on one hand, and, basically formats reason on the other.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is D. According to Al-Fârâbî, human beings collaborate as societies “in order to preserve [themselves] and to attain [their] highest perfections. On Al-Fârâbî’s view, the society in which there is a cooperation to acquire felicity is the virtuous society. Al-Fârâbî also shares with Aristotle the claim that attaining the highest possible degree of perfection entails happiness but Al-Fârâbî’s conception of happiness is rather different from that of Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia, because ultimate happiness, for Al-Fârâbî, is a state associated with the afterlife, when, the soul has separated from the body-regarding his conception of the soul.

In political thought, as well as in metaphysics, Avicenna followed the path built by his predecessor, Al-Fârâbî. For Al-Fârâbî, the conditions for ideal rule are mostly related with the functions of the soul and the intellect. Avicenna thoroughly studied the soul in its totality and in all its functions, whether rational, animal, or vegetative. He charted the operations of all the senses in detail, including the five external senses and especially the five internal senses located in the brain-namely, common sense, imagery (where the forms of things are stored), imagination, estimation (judging/guessing the imperceptible significance or connotations for us of sensed objects, like friendship and enmity, which also includes instinctive sensing), and memory-and how they could help or prevent or slow down the intellect in finding out the middle term and perceiving intelligibles more generally.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is E. Avicenna charted the operations of all the senses in detail, including the five external senses and especially the five internal senses located in brain-namely, common sense, imagery, imagination, estimation and memory.