Philosophy Study, ISSN 2159-5313

June 2011, Vol. 1, No. 1, 41-51

Philosophy and Theology in the Islamic Culture: Al-Frbs

De scientiis
Jakob Hans Josef Schneider
Universidade Federal de Uberlndia
In this paper, the author refers to the Latin translation of the Kitab Ihsa al Ulum of Al-Frb made by Dominicus
Gundissalinus in the XIIth Century in Toledo, Spain. This text under the Latin title De scientiis was one of the most
influential texts of the Arab and Persian world in the western Latin Europe. It is an introductory text into all until
known sciences written for students and laymen (illiterate) who want to study one of these sciences. The text of
Al-Frb discusses the seven liberal arts, all of the works on physics of Aristotle and includes some reflexions on
metaphysics, political philosophy and theology. There are two important points: (1) All sciences have a theoretical
and practical aspect. All sciences are sciences of principles and causes and their application to the practical world.
(2) The so called prima philosophia is the political philosophy and not metaphysics. In this respect, Al-Frb
subordinates theology as a science of the religious laws to politics as a science of civil laws. In the same respect, he
combines, under the famous sentence of Plato that philosophers are the governors and the very well companions of
mankind, politics with theology.
Keywords: Muslim philosophy, political philosophy, seven liberal arts, medieval philosophy, theology, Plato,
Aristotle

1. Introduction
Al-Frbs (Abu Nasr Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Torhan Ibn Uzlag) De scientiis or Kitab Ihsa al
Ulum was translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus in the XIIth Century.1 We have another translation
into Latin by Gerhard of Cremona,2 but Gundissalinus translation was more influential in the Middle Ages and
was involved and incorporated into the De divisione philosophiae of Gundissalinus,3 although Gerhards
Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, professor of philosophy, the Department of Philosophy, Universidade Federal de Uberlndia,
Minas Gerais, Brazil; director of the Centro Internacional de Estudos Medievais of the named University created by him in 2009.
1. Al-Frb, Ihs al-Ulm li-al-Frb, Ed. with an introduction and notes by Uthmn Amn, Cairo, 1949; idem, De
scientiis secundum versionem Dominici Gundisalvi. ber die Wissenschaften. Die Version des Dominicus Gundissalinus,
lateinisch-deutsch, bersetzt und eingeleitet von Jakob Hans Josef Schneider FreiburgBaselWien, 2006 (Herders Bibliothek der
Philosophie des Mittelalters, Bd. 9, hrsg. v. Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, Alexander Fidora e Andreas Niederberger); idem, Catlogo
de las ciencias, Edicin y traduccin castellana por ngel Gonzlez Palencia, Madrid, 1932, 1953; idem, La Classificazione
delle Scienze di Al-Frb nelle Tradizione ebraica. Edizione critica et traduzione annotata della versione ebraica di Qalonymos
ben Qalonymos ben Meir, per Mauro Zonta, Torino, 1992.
2. Al-Frb, ber die Wissenschaften. De scientiis. Nach der lateinischen bersetzung Gerhards von Cremona, mit einer
Einleitung und kommentierenden Anmerkungen hrsg. und bers. v. Franz Schupp, lateinisch-deutsch, Hamburg, 2005.
3. Dominicus Gundissalinus, De divisione philosophiae, Ed. Ludwig Baur, nebst einer Geschichte der philosophischen
Einleitung bis zum Ende der Scholastik (Beitrge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, Bd. 4) Mnster (Aschendorff
Verlag) 1903; cf. Rita Copeland, Ineke Sluiter, Ed., Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD
300-1475, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 461-487.

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PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

translating is much more close to the original Arabic text. Additionally, Gundissalinus translation is more
philosophical and for this reason, is more important in the Middle Ages, although the text of Gerhard is a slave
translation of word by word without the general meaning of the content of the text translated. Gerhard is not a
scholar of philosophy; whereas Gundissalinus is a philosopher and translator with intention and purpose of
Arab philosophical texts he translated.
Al-Frb is called in the Islamic World by his companions the seconde matre: qui ait t strictement un
philosophe, au sens grec de ce terme (Abdel-Massih 306) after the prime maitre Aristotle.4 He commented
almost all the works of Plato and Aristotle, and he wants to unite the two philosophies, as M. S. Boethius wants
to do the same interpretation of harmonization of Plato and Aristotle, as the title of one book of Al-Frb shows:
The Harmonization of the Two Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato the Divine and Aristotle.5 There is known in
the Middle Ages also a translation of the Risla flAql under the title De intellectu et intellecto and many other
texts,6 for example, the Liber exercitationis ad viam felicitatis,7 or The Attainment of Happiness.8
More characteristic of the scholar Al-Frb is what Moses Maimonides writes in a letter to his translator
Ibn-Tibbon: Generally, I would advise you to study only the works of logic composed by the scholar Abunazar
Alfarabi, for everything he has written, especially The Principle of Existing Things, is like fine flour. One can,
indeed, derive knowledge and wisdom from his works because he was a distinguished philosopher
(Maimonides 135).
However, Al-Frb is known as a scholar of ethics, politics, metaphysics and theology, too. He is one of
the Islamic philosophers who explores the relationship of the religious world and the political world with clear
words: It is the governor of the human society which is responsible for the destinies of human beings.9 In the
following the author wants to explain the position of Al-Frb in the view of his De scientiis and other texts of
Al-Frb known in the Latin Middle Ages, especially his De intellectu et intellecto.
4. L. Massignon, Prface at: I. Madkour, La place dal-Farabi dans lcole philosophique musulmane, Paris, 1934; quotation
in: E. Abdel-Massih, O. A. M., Al-Frb. Livre de concordance entre les opinions des deux sages: le divin Platon et Aristote, in:
Melto 5 (1969): 305-358, p. 306.
5. Alfarabi, The Political Writings. Selected Aphorisms and other Texts, trad. and annot. by Charles E. Butterworth,
Ithaca/London, 2001, 115-167. German Translation in: Alfarabis Philosophische Abhandlungen, bers. v. Fr. Dieterici, Leiden
1892, 1-53; French Translation in: E. Abdel-Massih, O. A. M., Al-Frb, loc. cit. (note. 3), 313-358. The Incipit is: Au nom
dAllah, le Bienfaiteur Misricordieux. Livre de concordance entre les opinions des deux sages: le divin Platon et Aristote, [crit]
par le vnrable chef, surnomm le second Matre, Abu Nar al-Farabi: que la misricorde de Dieu soit sur lui.
6. Edition in: tienne Gilson, Les sources grco-arabes de laugustinisme avicennisant suivi de Louis Massignon Notes sur
le texte original arabe du De intellectu dAl-Farabi, Archives dHistoire doctrinale et littraire du Moyen Age 4 (1929-1930), Repr.
Paris, 1986, pp. 115-126. To the whole latin tradition of Al-Farabis texts: D. H. Salman, The Mediaeval Latin Translations of
Alfarabis Works, The New Scholasticism 13 (1939): 245-261, 246; H. Bdoret, Les premires traductions toldanes de
philosophie. uvres dAl-Farabi, Revue noscolastique de philosophie 41 (1938): 80-97. The author himself has pointed out all
known latin translations of Al-Frb, cf. Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, Al Frb (875-950) De scientiis secundum versionem
Dominici Gundisalvi, op. cit., pp. 37-46.
7. Al-Frb, Le Liber exercitationis ad viam felicitatis dAlfarabi, Ed. H. Salman, Recherche de thologie ancienne et
mdivale 12 (1940): 33-48.
8. Al-Frb, The Attainment of Happiness, trans. by Muhsin Mahdi, in: Medieval Political Philosophy. A Sourcebook, ed. By
Ralph Lerner & Muhsin Mahdi, New York, 1972, 1991, pp. 58-82; the same work in: Muhsin Mahdi, Alfarabis Philosophy of
Plato and Aristotle, translated with an Introduction by M. Mahdi (The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962; and in: Alfarabi, Philosophy
of Plato and Aristotle, transl. with an Intraduction by Muhsin Mahdi, revised edition with a foreword by Charles E. Butterworth
and Thomas L. Pangle, Ihaca (New York), 2001, pp.13-50; idem, Le rappel de la voie suivre pour parvenir au bonheur, trans. by
D. Mallet, Bulletin dtudes Orientales 39-40 (1987-1988) 113-140.
9. Cf. Hans Daiber, Al-Frb on the Role of Philosophy in Society, in: Philosophia Islamica. The Journal of the International
Society for Islamic Philosophy, Vol. 1, issue 1, 2010, pp. 71-77. Some texts of Al-Frb, especially on logic and politics we have
in an English translation in: Seyyed Hossein Nasr with Mehdi Aminrazavi with the assistance of M. R. Jozi, An Anthology of
Philosophy in Persia, Vol. I: From Zaroaster to Umar Khayyam, London/New York, 2008, pp. 134-179.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

43

2. Al-Frbs De Scientiis in the Context of Latin Medieval Philosophy

Al-Frbs book De scientiis is a book of medieval future opening the closed septem arts liberals school
training.10 It opens the closed system of the seven liberal arts: the trivium: grammar, dialectic (logic) and
rhetoric; and the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy or astrology, dominating in the
scholastic education until the XIIth Century. Furthermore, Al-Frb does ordering in his De scientiis the
philosophical disciplines of the several sciences or arts in respect of principles. Therefore, we can speak about
sciences and no more about arts. New sciences are to be added, too, for example, the perspectiva,11 the
optics and medicine. Also, the natural sciences and the metaphysics, respectively the Aristotelian lectures or
books on these matters, are incorporated into The Division of Sciences of Al-Frb. His point of view of
science agenda is theoretical and practical. All sciences have a theoretical and a practical part:12 fundamental
science and applied science, for example, ethics and applied ethics.
This development signifies a great change in Medieval and Christian culture: firstly, a rigorous separation
of philosophy from theology and secondly, the opening of the Christian intellectuality to the pagan philosophy.
The human reason is open to all sciences. The scientification (Verwissenschaftlichung, Max Weber) and
professionalisation (Beruf, Max Weber) of the understanding of reality and the world are the characteristics
of this time in the XIIth Century.13 It has to do with the autonomy of science without religion relations. In
addition, we have the great reception of philosophy and sciences of the Islamic world in the High Middle Ages,
especially by translations of Arabic texts into Latin made in Toledo, Spain, received of Aristotle and Plato and
their schools: Aristotelianism and medieval Platonism.14
In this context, De scientiis of Al-Frb reaches its utmost importance. He is a true philosopher, a true
companion of human beings (Plato Sophist 216a-d) who understands with a precise knowledge the science of all
things. Science is, either say, philosophy, in the view of Aristotle (Metaphysics II 1. 993b19-20; 993b23-24), a
research of principles and causes of all things being divine or human: The sapientiae studium (Marcus Tlio
Ccero, de officiis II. 5), knowledge, respectively science, is the divinarum et humanarum causarumque [...]
scientia rerum.15 Philosophy is precisely an inquiry of the principles and causes of all things being human or
divine.
10. Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, Al-Farabi: De scientiis, in: Scintilla. Revista de Filosofia e Mstica Medieval, Curitiba,
2009, Brasil, Vol.6, n. 2, pp. 175-179; idem, Article artes liberales, in: Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopdie der Antike, Ed. M.
Landfester, Vol. 13: Rezeptions- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Stuttgart/Weimar, 1999, pp. 273-278. idem, Article Trivium., in:
Historisches Wrterbuch der Philosophie, Ed. Joachim Ritter et Karlfried Grnder, Vol.10, Basel/Darmstadt, 1998, pp.
1517-1520.
11. Clemens Baeumker, Witelo. Ein Philosoph und Naturforscher des XIII. Jahrhunderts (Beitrge zur Geschichte der
Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, Vol.3/2), Mnster, 1908, 1991.
12. Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, Wissenschaftseinteilung und institutionelle Folgen, Philosophy and Learning. Universities
in the Middle Ages, Ed. by Maarten J. F. M. Hoenen, Jakob Hans Josef Schneider und Georg Wieland, Leiden/New York/Kln,
1995, pp. 63-121 (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Ed. by Jrgen Miethke, William J. Courtenay und
Jeremy Catto, Bd. 6). idem, Al-Farabi et lAristotlisme dans le Moyen ge LatinDe scientiis dAl-Farabi, in: A Cidade de
Deus e A Cidade dos Homens. De Agostinho a Vico. Festschrift para Luis Alberto De Boni, Vol. I, ed. par Ernildo Stein, Porto
Alegre, Brasil, 2004, pp. 391-408.
13. Wolfgang Kluxen, Der Begriff der Wissenschaft, in: Peter Weimar (Ed.), Die Renaissance der Wissenschaften im 12.
Jahrhundert, Zrich, 1981, pp. 273-293; Martin Grabmann, Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode. Nach den gedruckten und
ungedruckten Quellen bearbeitet, 2 Bde., Berlin, 1988, p. 28. Cf. Wolfgang Pannenberg, Wissenschaftstheorie und Theologie,
Frankfurt a. M., 1987.
14. Schneider, Jakob Hans Josef. Al-Farabi: De scientiis. On the Division of Sciences. Arabic Philosophy in the Latin Middle
Ages in La recepo de la pense grco-romaine, arabe et judaque par lOccident Mdival (113-138).
15. Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, Philosophie II. Christliche Sptantike, Mittelalter, dans: Historisches Wrterbuch der
Rhetorik, Vol. VI, Tbingen, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2003, pp. 986-1001.

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PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

Because of this, the intention of Al-Frb in De scientiis is simply the following: to explain and clarify the
principles and methods of all known sciences to facilitate the study of them, to educate those who want to lead
in science before the study, to discover preferences studies, or to help those who want to explore a science
proposals that should exist in the city or to an invitation to a middle formation in science, superficial to
accompany the scientific and philosophical discourse in city training. Someone who consults a doctor has to
have some knowledge about medicine so that he does not run risk of his health; someone who is building a
house has to know something about geometry and the static walls; and someone who is speaking with his loved
or with his friends has to know the rules of the spoken idiom. Al-Frbs De scientiis is an introduction into the
sciences, their principles and methods being necessary in a human society.16
In the book of Al-Frbs De scientiis, we have another novelty, too. The political philosophy is the prima
philosophia and not the metaphysics as the philosophers of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages thought. Just
as Ren Descartes in his book of Principles of Philosophy confirms, the practical philosophy or the ethics are
the purpose and the final end of all human desires to arrive at the true wisdom. In 1638, Guilielmus Camerarius
edited two Latin works of Al-Farabi: Opera Omnia, which includes only De scientiis, and De intellectu et
intellecto.17 Once more, a clear sign of the great relevance of De scientiis focuses exactly on the opinion that
the political philosophy or the ethics are the highest philosophies or the prima philosophia.
In this respect, Al-Frbs De scientiis makes an allusion to some words of Plato in his Republic: The
philosophers are Kings, because they have the knowledge of the idea of the Good. This signifies, in the view of
Frbs De scientiis where Islam is a religion of the divine laws as in the Christianity and Judaism as well, that
theology is subordinated to the political science or philosophy, which deals with the laws of the society and the
human community. Religion is only one part of the law, namely, the divine law. The governor of a town or of a
State must be wise, while a philosopher meets public and religious laws in its single person. The philosopher is
the true companion of men. He joins together the religious and the political world.
The author wants to repeat his initial thesis with other words: It is the philosopher who represented in the
person of the governor of the human society, who is responsible for the destinies of human beings. However,
the philosopher only can stay beside of him, can give consults and can help with his thinking, but he is not the
person who can resolve the political problems of the human society. As an inquiry of principles and causes,
philosophy is independent of all human ends and practical intentions. Philosophy is the theoretical form of
reflexion without practical goals. As theory, philosophy is science, and as praxis, philosophy is the application
of theoretical knowledge to practical ends and goals.

3. Some Difficulties of the Interpretation of Al-Frbs Thinking

As we know, Al-Frb is very well known in the Latin medieval tradition: as a logician, so in Moses
Maimonides and Albert the Great, as an ethicist, so in Thomas Aquinas, and as a metaphysician like Avicenna
Latinus. Aquinas quoted Al-Frb, to the authors knowledge, only in one place, namely, in his Commentary of
16. Richard McKeon, The Organisation of Sciences and the Relations of Cultures in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, The
Cultural Context of Medieval Learning: Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Philosophy, Science, and Theology in
the Middle Ages, September 1973 (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 26), Eds. J. E. Murdoch and E. D. Sylla,
Dordrecht/Boston, 1975, pp. 151-184.
17. Alpharabii Vetustissimi Aristotelis Interpretis, Opera Omnia, Ed. Guilielmus Camerarius, Paris, 1638 (Repr. Frankfurt a.
M., 1969). Les Princes des Philosophie of Ren Descartes 15 years later. The author thinks that Descartes knows that edition of
Al-Frb.

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45

the Sentences of Peter Lombard (in IV sent., d. 49, q. 2, a 1 c ). There, Aquinas writes: Our possible intellect
(intellectus possibilis) never can reach the cognition of the separate substances as Al-Frb says at the end of
his ethics; although he said the opposite in his De intellectu, as the Commentator refers in the third book of his
Commentary of the De anima of Aristotle.18 The author cannot specify to which work of Al-Frb Aquinas
refers, probably to the last chapter of De scientiis or even to Averroes. The Commentary of Al-Frb on the
Nicomachean Ethics should be unknown to Thomas Aquinas, because this Commentary seems to be
disappeared just in the Arabic original.19
In his philosophical novel Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (The Living Son of the Vigilant) or also called philosophus
autodidactus, Ibn-Tufail (Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Tufail al Qaisi or in the Latin form:
Abubacer) accuses the same contraposition to Al-Frb as Aquinas did.20 According to the report of Ibn-Tufail,
the following things run mixed up in Al-Frb:
(1) In his Der Musterstaat or The Perfect State (Mabdi r ahl al-madna al-fdila), Al-Frb believes
that the evil souls are nowhere after death, that means, would no longer be exist, because only the virtuous
souls could be immortal. Whereas in his book The Ideal Religion (Kitb al-Milla wa Nu Ukhr), he
maintains that after death, the evil souls would be delivered to the eternal torment and so would live an
immortal if also wretched life.21
(2) On the other hand, Al-Frb affirms in his commentary of Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle that
human being could reach happiness only in this world and everything what someone intends to say further
about that is only Altweibergeschwtz (old wives babble). What we want to add some other propositions to
ours about this world, for example, statements or a probably propositional knowledge about the other, the
metaphysical world, or the knowledge of the separate substances, is more or less a mischief.
(3) In this context, Ibn-Tufail accuses Al-Frb, who has become famous by his work on logic, of
contradictions and inconsistencies. Somebody could only reach the true happiness and the perfection and
immortality of the soul by the speculative sciences. However, it is he, who dedicates himself to these sciences,
18. Perhaps: Averroes, Averrois Cordubensis Commentarium magnum in Aristotelis De anima libros, Ed. F. S. Crawford,
Cambridge (Mass.), 1953, p. 433 and 485sq. To this cf. Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, Al-Farabis Kommentar zu De
interpretatione des Aristoteles. Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung der Sprachphilosophie im Mittelalter, in: Miscellanea Mediaevalia,
Bd. 22: Scientia und ars im Hoch- und Sptmittelalter, hrsg. v. I. Craemer-Ruegenberg & A. Speer, Berlin/New York, 1994,
687-738; Shlomo Pins, Les limites de la mtaphisique selon al-Farabi, Ibn Bajja et Maimonide. Source et antithse des ces
doctrines chez Alexandre dAphrodise et chez Themistius, in: Sprache und Erkenntnis im Mittelalter. Akten des VI.
Internationalen Kongresses fr mittelalterliche Philosophie, Bonn 29. August 3rd., September 1977, ed. Wolfgang Kluxen
(Miscellanea Mediaevalia, Vol. 131 and 2), Vol. 131, BerlinNew York, 1981, pp. 211-225; Thrse-Anne Druart, Al-Farabi and
Emanationism, in: John F. Wipple (Ed.), Studies in Medieval Philosophy, Washington D.C., 1987, pp. 23-43; Muhsin Mahdi,
Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Al-Farabis Enumeration of the Sciences, in: The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning:
Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Philosophy, Science, and Theology in the Middle Ages, September 1973
(Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 26), Eds. J. E. Murdoch and E. D. Sylla, Dordrecht/Boston, 1975, pp. 113-147;
Josef Van Ess, The Beginnings of Islamic Theology, in The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning, op. cit., pp. 87-111.
19. Cf. Douglas M. Dunlop, Introduction: Aristotle, The Arabic Version of the Nicomachean Ethics, with an Introduction and
Annotated Translation by Douglas M. Dunlop, Eds. Anna Akasoy, and Alexander Fidora (Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus 17),
LeidenBoston, 2005, pp. 1-121, esp. pp. 48sq. and 88-94.
20. Ibn-Tufail, Hayy Bem Yaqdhan. Roman philosophique dibn Thofail, trad. Franaise, ed. Par Lon Gauthier, Paris 1983, p.
12; Ibn-Tufail, Der Ur-Robinson. Mit einem Nachwort von Otto F. Best, Mnchen, 1987, p. 20.
21. Cf. Al-Frb, Der Musterstaat, hrsg. Und bers. V. Friedrich Dieterici, Leiden, 1895; idem, Trait des opinions des
habitants de la cit idale, introd., trad. et notes Tahani Sabri, (tudes Musulmanes, XXXI) Paris, 1990; idem, On the Perfect
State, trans. by Richard Walzer, Oxford, 1985; Al- Frb, Ab Nar al-Frb, Kitb al-Milla wa Nu Ukhr, Ed. With an
introduction and notes by Muhsin Mahdi, Beirut 1968; al-Frb, Alpharabi, The Political Writings. Selected Aphorisms and
other Texts, trad. and annot. by Charles E. Butterworth, IthacaLondon, 2001, pp. 87sqq.

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who separates himself from the ignorant and the pious. He, who knows everything from the highest Good,
cannot reach it just by his own knowledge, because to reach it, he needs piety, and so he expires the eternal
torment. And who knows nothing about it, the pious or ignorant, falls to nothing just because one can obtain the
highest Good only by philosophy.
(4) Just as the same position of Ibn-Tufail, Thomas Aquinas also claims in his ethica that Al-Frb is of
the opinion that human being do not reach knowledge of the separate substances and of the reality being
beyond of the sensible world in which human being is living. However, Al-Frb mentioned the opposite
opinion in his De intellectu: Human being can reach the true happiness and the perfection of the soul only by
the speculative sciences dealing especially with what exceeds our earthly existencewith the realization of the
highest Good and the First Principle. The question is threefold: (1) the question of the immortality and
perfection of the soul; (2) the question of the true happiness of human being and (3) the question of the possible
knowledge of the highest Good and the First Principle.
All these questions we can put in only one question: How the relationship between philosophy and
theology is characterized. From the viewpoint of De scientiis, we can explain this complicated problem in the
way interpreted below.

4. Faith and Reason, Dialectical Theology and Philosophy

In the De scientiis, questions are raising in the transition from the metaphysics and the scientia divina to
the scientia legum, the scientia civilis and the dialectical theology that means to the political science, which, on
the one hand, concern the relationship among profane science, philosophy and theology, and on the other hand,
under the concept of the rex perfectus or the homo subtilis, the relationship between profanity and the sacred.
If true happiness and perfection of the soul can be accessed only by the speculative sciencesaccording to
the opinion of Al-Frb in his De intellectu, then those dedicated to these sciences which means to philosophy
separate the wise manthe philosopher, from the believers and from the pious.
Obviously, two perspectives are perceptible in this separation: On the one hand, we have to distinguish the
human reason from the religious faith. The result of this is that faith is not really knowledge, because we cannot,
in the same time and in the same relation, believe something that we know. On the other hand, we have to
distinguish the speculative sciences, i.e., the sciences which unfold the Theoria in ancient Greek mind from
revealed theologythe dialectical theology as Al-Frb calls it.
According to the structure of the De scientiis, the Aristotelian theologic or metaphysical theology,
dealing also with the Highest Good and the First Principle and which Al-Frb calls scientia divina,
clearly belongs to the speculative sciences. However, which he calls dialectical theology having something to
do with the revealed theology does not be really science. In this respect, however, the politics is the science
dealing with the divine, civil and religious law. Revealed theology is, in the structure of the De scientiis, one
part of the scientia legum.
The relationship between reason and faith can cause conflicts. If the Highest Goodthe Godis only
accessible to the pious, such as in the dialectical theology, then the access to the Highest Good and the last
destination or ultimate end, i.e., the visio dei, is closed to the wise man, to who knows the Highest Good
and the First Principlethe God. If the contemplation of Godthe visio deican be achieved only by the
speculative sciences, firstly by philosophy or by metaphysics, then the access to these things is closed to the

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

47

believers and the pious, because he is not a trained philosopher. So, can only the philosopher reach the last end
the happiness of human being? Or only the pious?
Al-Frb gives the following answer: But firstly we have to ask where really is the place where the
relationship between theology and philosophy will be decided, and where we can scientifically talk about and
investigate the true happiness, the perfection of the soul and the highest Good. If we want to talk about these
things scientifically, then quite clear, that is, to deal in philosophy on these issues.
Al-Frb puts philosophy in the form of metaphysics or scientia divina over revealed theology as
Averroes does later as well.22 In this sense, for example, Aubry de Reims makes an illuminating allusion to
Averroes: As Averroes says in his prolog to the 8th book of his commentary on the Physics of Aristotle, the
being of man through his ultimate perfection is the very perfect being by the speculative sciences.23 A
thesis very provoking in the Latin Middle Ages is manifested by Boethius of Dacia in his De summo bono and
by Dante Alighieri in the first chapter of the first book of his Convivio.24
The thesis that philosophy or the speculative science is the ultimate perfection of human being is very
clear in Al-Frbs Virtuous Religion, where he says, Divine Law (shariah), Religion (millah), and Faith (din)
become synonyms. Religious opinions are undemonstrated similitudes (mitalat) of scientifically demonstrated
opinions. They are thus subordinate to theoretical philosophy (qtd. in Mahdi, The Editio Princeps 8).
Or as Al-Frb explains in his work Die Partikeln: die Religion dient zur Unterweisung der groen
Menge ber die theoretischen und praktischen Dinge, die in der Philosophie deduziert wurden, und zwar derart,
dass den Menschen das Verstndnis durch berzeugung (Rhetorik) oder das Evozieren von Vorstellungen
(Poesie) oder durch beides zusammen erleichtert wird.25 (the religion... serves to the instruction of the large
amount about the theoretical and practical things which have been deduced in the philosophy, such, that
understanding is facilitated to the people by convictions (rhetoric) or by the production or evocation of ideas
(poetry), or by both together).26 In the De intellectu of Al-Frb, revealed theological knowledge has only the
status of probably knowledge. The knowledge of the Mutakallimun is being taken in consideration, because that
knowledge, which brings to light only probably things, is knowledge as well, but according to Plato, only an
opinion (doxa) or a doctrine, and as we can say a dogma. However, strictly speaking, the theological knowledge
is no knowledge in the scientific sense according to Al-Frb. If we take in consideration the Platonic
distinction between opinion (doxa) and knowledge (episteme), then we can talk about the true happiness and
22. Cf. Averroes, Kitab fasl al-maqal. Harmonie der Religion und Philosophie, in: Philosophie und Theologie von Averroes,
trad. By M. J. Mller, Weinheim, 1991, p. 7; Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, The Eternity of the World. Thomas Aquinas and
Boethius of Dacia, Archives dHistoire Doctrinale et Littraire du Moyen ge 66 (1999): 121-141.
23. Aubry de Reims, Philosophia, ed. Ren A. Gauthier: Notes sur Siger de Brabant II. Siger en 1272-1275. Aubry de Reims
et la Scission des Normands, Revue des sciences philosophiques et thologiques 68 (1984): 29-48, here: p. 29, 34, 16: Nam ut ait
Auerroys in prologo octaui Phisicorum, esse hominis ex sui ultima perfectione est ipsum esse perfectum per scientias
speculativas.
24. Cf. Jakob Hans Josef Schneider, Parlare alcuno di se. Ist es erlaubt, von sich selbst zu sprechen? Dante Alighieri und
das Erwachen eines neuen philosophischen Selbstbewutseins, in: Gnther Mensching (Ed.), Selbstbewutsein und Person im
Mittelalter. Symposium des Philosophischen Seminars der Universitt Hannover vom 24. Bis 26. February 2004 (Contractio.
Studien zur Philosophie und ihrer Geschichte, Ed. Gnther Mensching, Vol. 6), Wrzburg (Knigshausen & Neumann), 2005, pp.
215-238.
25. Cf. Ulrich Rudolph, Islamische Philosophie. Von den Anfngen bis zur Gegenwart, Mnchen, 2004, p. 33; Jakob Hans
Josef Schneider, Lunit de la raison humaine selon Thomas dAquin et Al-Farabi, in: Le Portique. Revue de philosophie et de
sciences humaines, Vol. 12: charme et sduction, Metz/Strasbourg (Frankreich) 2e semestre, 2003, pp. 97-118.
26. Cf. Ulrich Rudolph, Islamische Philosophie. Von den Anfngen bis zur Gegenwart, Mnchen, 2004, p. 33; Jakob Hans
Josef Schneider, Lunit de la raison humaine selon Thomas dAquin et Al-Farabi, in: Le Portique. Revue de philosophie et de
sciences humaines, Vol. 12: charme et sduction, Metz/Strasbourg (Frankreich) 2e semestre, 2003, pp. 97-118.

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PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

the highest Good scientifically only in philosophy, i.e., according to Aristotle, in the metaphysics or theologic,
very distinguished from revealed theology.
Therefore, according to Al-Frb, the theological and religious opinions (opiniones) are unproven
imitations (similitudines, the Greek term is mimesis) of the propositions proven in philosophy. They are,
however, only propositional imitations of scientific propositions and not propositiones or affirmative or
negative sentences of science, which Aristotle calls in his De interpretatione the lgos apophantiks. In this
respect, the theological knowledge remains at the level of opinions and beliefs and is no scientific knowledge as
the philosophical knowledge is oriented at the Analytica posteriora of Aristotle. However, the theological
knowledge is not a mere imitation or a blind conjecture. As imitations of philosophically proven propositions,
they are quite real propositions, on their truth we can trust in particularly because philosophy just brought to
light the foundation of this trust.
In the last chapter of De scientiis, Al-Frb shows (The author quotes the English translation from the
Arabic text):
There is a group of dialectical theologians who are of the opinion that they should defend religions by arguing that
religious opinions and all their postulates are not susceptible of examination by human opinions, deliberation, or intellects,
because they are superior to these in rank since they are received through divine revelation, and because they comprise
divine mysteries that human intellects are too weak to comprehend or approach. (qtd. in Naijar 28)27

In this context, the author wants to quote one passage from the al-Siyst al-madaniyyah (The Political
Regime or The Principles of Being), where Al-Frb is explaining:
Most men, either by nature or by habit, are unable to comprehend and cognize those things (principles of beings, their
ranks of order, happiness, and the rulership of the virtuous cities); these are the men for whom one ought to represent the
manner in which the principles of the beings, their ranks of order, the Active Intellect, and the supreme rulership, exist
through things that are imitations of them (Al-Frb, The Political Regime 40).28

Human reason or intellect of most men, but not of all men, is too weak to comprehend and understand
these things mentioned above (the principles of the beings, their ranks of order, the Active Intellect,29 etc.) and
therefore, we need somebody who can represent for them the manner in which those things exist, and which
exceed the human intellect. In this respect, it is necessary that human beings have a rulership and a governor or
the wise man who can mediate the philosophical knowledge with the practical requirements. Al-Frb
bounds together these twofold aspects of human life in the famous sentence of Plato that only the philosopher
can be the true governor.30
27. Translation by Fauzi M. Naijar: The Enumeration of the Sciences, in: Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, Ed.
by Ralph Lerner & Muhsin Mahdi, New York, 1972, 1991, p. 28; Cf. Al-Frb, Enumeration of Sciences, in: Alfarabi, The
Political Writings, Selected Aphorisms and Other Texts, trans. and annot. by Ch. E. Butterworth, Ithaca/London, 2001, p. 81.
28. Al-Frb, The Political Regime or Principles of Being, transl. by Fauzi M. Naijar (Hyderabad Text: al-Siys
al-madaniyyah, 1346 A.H.), in: Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, Ed. by Ralph Lerner & Muhsin Mahdi, New York,
1972, 1991, pp. 3157, p. 40.
29. Cf. Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroes, on Intellect. Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect,
& Theories of Human Intellect, New York/Oxford, 1992; idem, Alfarabi and Avicenna on the Active Intellect, in: Viator. Medieval
and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 3, Berkeley Los AngelesLondon, 1972, pp. 109-121.
30. Al-Frb, The Attainment of Happiness, transl. by Muhsin Mahdi, in: Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, Eds.
by Ralph Lerner & Muhsin Mahdi, New York, 1972, 1991, pp. 58-82, p. 79; the same text in: Muhsin Mahdi, Alfarabis
Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, translated with an Introduction by M. Mahdi, The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962 and in:
Al-Frb, Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, translated with an Introduction by Muhsin Mahdi, revised edition with a Foreword

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

49

5. The rex perfectus or the homo subtilis

The whole truth consists in this Platonic sentence that only the philosopher is able to understand and
recognize the things that are beyond our experiences and sensible world. Only is he authorized to see the divine
and earthly things together. However, as the history of the Socratic rise to the vision of the ideas, especially of
the idea of the Good and the necessary descent in the human world with their everyday necessities shows,
philosophical speculation as such is dispensable, while human practice not. Therefore, a philosophical
reflection on the human practice is necessary, which in the last chapter of De scientiis the so called scientia
legume, the science of politics represents and of which theology is one part.
We can sum up: Inasmuch as the revealed theology is subordinate to the theoretical philosophy, she is not
science in the strict sense of the word. However, insofar, she is a part of the scientia civilis. The scientia legum
is a science because each law has knowledge and acts which we have to follow. Inasmuch as the theology
examines the statutes of the divine cult, faith and the world, she is knowledge, but related to the adoration or
worship of God (ad honorem Dei), an activity. In other words, the theology is a science of the divine law as
the scientia civilis is a science of the civil law. Both come together in this point that they are law-sciences. We
cannot separate the politics and theology. Both are nomothetic sciences which deal with what human beings
have to do and to obey to achieve their ultimate goalthe true happiness.
In the form of the rex perfectus or homo subtilis, Al-Frb seems to give those people whose spirit is too
weak a control pattern or a guide to the hand to cognize and illuminate their ultimate end on their way to
happiness. However, there is no guarantee. In this sense, Al-Frb determines revealed theology as a study of
the religious law, which is inseparable from the politics, the investigation of the civil law. The unity of politics
and theology is corporate in the person of the rex perfectus or homo subtilis. Therefore, there is no revealed
theology independent of politics, which we could understand in the sense of science. Theology is incorporated
into the scientia legum and therefore only science.
However, philosophy comes to his own right. Al-Frb separates the theology in the meaning of Aristotle
from revealed theology. Without any doubt, the Aristotelian theologic is science in the strict sense of the
word. The religious law is not the only reality of the divine. There are also questions, for example of the
existence, the unity, the incorporality, the eternity, etc., or of God that we have to answer philosophically or
scientifically. These questions stand outside the revealed theology as a science of the religious law. Philosophy
remains autonomous and independent of all other things and human affairs, worries and necessities. The
philosopher is the true companion of human being, because he knows. Only under the conditions of human
being and of the necessities of everyday life, we need that wise man (homo subtilis)the governor or the rex
perfectus, who can conduct usthe normal people or the laymen (illiterati) or the majority of human
beingsto our happiness by the trust on the truth of his speaking. That does not mean that we should have a
blind trust on the wisdom of that wise man or scholar, because we take off our hat, but not our head when
entering the Cathedral or the Mosque. Of course, if we can find himthe wise man, we can be happy. In this
sense, politics is our destiny.
by Charles E. Butterworth and Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca (New York), 2001, pp. 13-50. Cf. Al-Frb, Le Liber exercitationis ad
viam felicitates dAlfarabi, Ed. H. Salman, Recherche de thologie ancienne et mdivale 12 (1940): 33-48; idem, Le rappel de la
voie suivre pour parvenir au bonheur, trad. D. Mallet, Bulletin dtudes Orientales 39-40 (1987-1988) 113-140; idem, Trait des
opinions des habitants de la cit idale, op. cit., p. 109, chap.28: Les qualits du chef de la cit idale.

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PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAMIC CULTURE

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