SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE

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.

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”. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. The discipline of legislating was added by Avicenna as a fourth tract to practical philosophy.

The political writings of Al-Mâwardi may be seen as the sum of two distinct styles: 1. The format focusing on the individual ruler as a social figure, as well as his ideal characteristics and lessons learned from the preceding generations, the “Mirrors for Princes” format, which has an important role in the advising tradition in Islam (nasîhatnâmah); 2. The format in which the theory of the caliphate (imâmah) is put forward, which is more complicated in structure and focused on issues of government. Within the context of the first style, it is convenient to count The Advice to Kings (Nasîhat Al-Muluk); and within the second, Al-Ahkâm As-Sultâniyyah. Al- Mawardi’s main political thought is embodied in his Al-Ahkam As-Sultâniyyah. Only a small part of the work seems to be on political theory, while the rest is a discussion on the details of public administration and rules of government (Sharif, n.d.). But his small portion is extremely important because it is the first attempt in Muslim history to evolve a comprehensive theory of the State and because it has left an enduring influence on the course of Muslim political thought up to our own day. As also be understood from the information given, the correct answer is B.

“The Incoherence of the Philosophers” was written by Al-Ghazâlî. Kitab-al Shifa is a book written by Avicenna (Ebu Ali Husayn Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sînâ). Fasl al-Maqâl was written by Averroës (Ibn Rushd).

Averroës was conscious of the fact that what he just said would be impossible when shari‘ah is understood fully literally. He-following the line of thought in Plato and Al-Fârâbî- had drawn attention to the significance of the “difference in human nature”-i.e., difference between philosophers and non-philosophers, but was aware that shari‘ah was addressed to all Muslims, and not only to the philosophers of the community. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is B. Averroës drew attention to the significance of the “difference in human nature”.

Apart from reconciling the Ancient Greek legacy with the allegorical interpretation of the shari‘ah, Averroës is worthy of attention in his analysis of the degeneration of state (as he idealized). While doing so, he was most commonly in line with the Platonic thought; but he didn’t neglect adding examples from his own history either, as later would be done by Ibn Khaldûn. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is B. Averroës is worthy of attention in his analysis of the degeneration of state.

The Muqaddimah is the sum of the Foreword, the Introduction and the First Book of Kitâba’l-Ibar, which Ibn Khaldûn intended as a comprehensive history of world civilizations. However, the analyses and the visionary thoughts on politics, civilization and history have overshadowed what were written in the remaining of Kitâba’l-Ibar; moreover, the studies on Ibn Khaldûn’s thought after his death (1406) have focused more on The Muqaddimah. In the Introduction of The Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldûn started with setting forth his evaluation on the science of history; and in the First Book, with elaborating the following subjects and the reasons underlying them in general: the nature of ‘umrân in the world, and the rural life without the nomadic-settled distinction (bedâwah), sedentary culture and urban life (khadârah), taghallub (sovereignty over winning wars/battles), income, making a living, sciences and education, crafts, etc. This general content was separated into six chapters afterwards; and each subject, was elaborated and discussed in ‘encyclopedical’ details, so to speak.

The first chapter consists of a description-in general framework- of the human civilization, its classes and the places occupied by those civilizations on earth. In the second chapter, the rural societies and their civilizations, i.e. the lives of the societies making a living on agriculture and stockbreeding in rather primitive ways, regardless of the fact that they are nomads or settled as villages, are taken up (In Ibn Khaldûn’s words, ‘badawî ‘umrân’). The third chapter-which also could be read as Ibn Khaldûn’s political theory/philosophy- is an analysis of the idea(s) of state, dynasties, caliphate, rulership and the stages in the organization of state as well as positions in bureaucracy and their duties. The fourth chapter reflects Ibn Khaldûn’s elaboration of the urban societies and their civilizations –i.e. ‘khadarî ‘umrân’, as well as cities and sedentary cultures. The fifth chapter briefly outlines Ibn Khaldûn’s theory of economics; and the majority of the chapter consists of the ways of making a living, in both stages of ‘umrân. The sixth and the last chapter covers an analysis of the sciences, how they are acquired, and transferred to posterity through education.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is E.

The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The correct answer is B.

In The Muqaddimah, ‘umrân bears the following meanings:

Bedâwah means the rural life without the nomadic-settled distinction. Khadârah means sedentary culture and urban life. Taghallub means sovereignty over winning wars/battles.

Ibn Khaldûn, in the beginning of the fourth chapter of The Muqaddimah, uses dynasty, ‘mulk’ and ‘state’ as standing for one another. The correct answer is C.

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. The ground for this, in other words, what enables mulk to do what it is supposed to do, is found in ‘umrân.

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:

A, C and E are works of Aristoteles. Republic is a work of Platon. The Perfect State is a work of Al-Farabi.

Politics is a work by Aristoteles.

Religion is suited to direct the members of society towards human perfection and thus to contribute simultaneously to the attainment of individual happiness and the well-being of the city: “… the first ruler of the excellent city must already have thorough cognizance of theoretical philosophy; for he cannot understand anything pertaining to God’s, may He be exalted, governance of the world so as to follow it except from that source. It is clear, in addition, that all of this is impossible unless there is a common religion in the cities that brings together their opinions, beliefs, and actions; that renders their divisions harmonious, linked together, and well ordered; and at that point they will support one another in their actions and assist one another to reach the purpose that is sought after, namely, ultimate happiness…” (Book of Religion 27: 113).

The imperative to know, and to know rationally for which the prophet is an extreme model- is based on Aristotle’s concept of happiness as the activity which differentiates humans from all other organic life: “the activity of the intellect is thought to be distinguished by hard work (spoud., ijtih.d), since it employs theory, and it does not desire to have any other end at all except itself; and it has its proper pleasure …. Complete happiness (eudaimonia, sa ‘.da) is this (Nicomachean Ethics, 1177b19–25)”.

Conditio sine qua non is a Latin term most frequently used in logic; and it means the condition in the absence of which something cannot be: So, politics cannot be understood without any reference to  fiqh.

Madhhab derives from the verb  zehab, meaning “to go”; and the literal meaning of the term is “the path to follow/the place to go to”. However, in Islamic terminology, madhahab is used to refer to the totality of the views on human relations-including forms of worship, and, views concerning the fundamentals of religious belief; mostly put forward by the authorities of the subject.

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).

In the middle ages, this strong relation between jurisprudence and politics was much emphasized by Abu’l-Hassan al-Mâwardi, who could be claimed to be the first Islamic political scientist.

The characteristics that should be possessed by the ruler/Imam/Caliph, or by the philosopher-king, on Averroës’ view, are as follows: 1. Love of knowledge and the aptitude to acquire theoretical sciences and teach them, 2. Good retention-as a prerequisite for learning, 3. Love of learning, 4. Love of truth and hatred of falsehood, 5. Contempt for sensual pleasures, 6. Aversion to amassing wealth (as well as desire for wealth), 7. Magnanimity, 8. Courage, 9. Resolve to pursue on his own for what is good or beautiful, 10. Eloquence/facility in expressing thoughts, 11. Ability to light quickly on the middle term (Fakhry, 2001: 111). These criteria, according to Averroës, are both in compliance with the ethical standards of Plato and Aristotle on one hand, and, with the ethical code of shari‘ah on the other (ibid).

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: 1. Aristotle’sNicomachean Ethics; 2. Plato’s Republic; and, 3. Aristotle’s Politics, which was only partially available in Arabic.

Philosophy of society/politics (falsafa medeniyyah) as a legacy of Al-Fârâbî’s thought, in line with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, comprises an intrinsically anthropological and ethical element; and thus, falsafa madaniyya is the part of philosophy dedicated to an inquiry into the kamal al-insan, the perfection of man, as an individual.