Philosophy and Jihad: Al-Farabi On Compulsion to Happiness
Review of Metaphysics, The › Vol. 60 Nbr. 3, March 2007
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Summary
ABU NASR MUHAMMAD AL-FARABI (870-950 A.D.), arguably the most important political philosopher in medieval Islam, discusses at some length in his writings the value of offensive war for the purpose of bringing the conquered to virtue, and thus to happiness, and on occasion even uses the term "jihad" or derivatives from it.1 Although there are remarkably few studies devoted to al-Farabi's understanding of jihad, one can identify three distinct positions among scholars. Ann Lambton and Charles Butterworth see al-Farabi arguing for a harmony or synthesis between philosophy and Islamic religion with respect to jihad.2 Joel Kraemer represents the second position in which alFarabi is seen as supporting philosophy with the Islamic notion of jihad.3 The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle is al-Farabi's sole starting point, and he uses it to transform the Islamic notion of jiha into the philosophical understanding of just war so that only the linguistic term "jihad" remains.
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Philosophy and Jihad: Al-Farabi On Compulsion to Happiness
ABU NASR MUHAMMAD AL-FARABI (870-950 A.D.), arguably the most important political philosopher in medieval Islam, discusses at some length in his writings the value of offensive war for the purpose of bringing the conquered to virtue, and thus to happiness, and on occasion even uses the term "jihad" or derivatives from it.1 Although there are remarkably few studies devoted to al-Farabi's understanding of jihad, one can identify three distinct positions among scholars. The first is, prima facie, the most literal reading: al-Farabi is supporting the Islamic notion of jihad with philosophy. The methodology of philosophy independently justifies the Islamic call to jihad: one can start with either philosophy or religion, for each confirms the other. Ann Lambton and Charles Butterworth see al-Farabi arguing for a harmony or synthesis between philosophy and Islamic religion with respect to jihad.2 Joel Kraemer represents the second position in which alFarabi is seen as supporting philosophy with the Islamic notion of jihad.3 The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle is al-Farabi's sole starting point, and he uses it to transform the Islamic notion of jiha into the philosophical understanding of just war so that only the linguistic term "jihad" remains. Al-Farabi accommodates the term but not the meaning of Islamic jiha, and so he writes esoterically as he quietly substitutes a philosophical meaning for jihad. In this reading, philosophy is "jihadist," inasmuch as it advocates a universal virtuous regime, but this regime is ruled by a philosopher for philosophy and not by shari'a for a divinely revealed doctrine.
The most recent and extensive analysis of al-Farabi's understanding of jihad is Joshua Parens's An Islamic Philosophy of Virtuous Regimes: Introducing Alfarabi (Albany: State University of New York, 2006), which provides the third interpretation: al-Farabi is using philosophy to criticize the religious notion of jihad. This position differs from the second because Parens does not see al-Farabi as substituting a philosophical for a religious meaning to jihad; rather, he is using philosophy to show the impossibility of establishing a universal virtuous regime through religious warfare. Philosophy, as demonstrated by Plato's Republic, is skeptical of the possibility of the ideally virtuous regime on any scale,4 and al-Farabi brings this skepticism to bear on the question of offensive war in the name of a universal religion.5 Plato's Republic is esoteric, since the argument for the virtuous regime shows its impossibility, and likewise al-Farabi's argument ...See the full content of this document
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