SOURCE: Mahdi, Muhsin. “Alfarabi on Philosophy and Religion.” Philosophical Forum 4, no. 1 (fall 1972): 5-25.

In the following essay, Mahdi explains al-Fārābī's position that religion and philosophy are not necessarily opposed to each other and that they can be mutually beneficial.

I

The Attainment of Happiness does not begin with an explanation of what happiness is or a description of the way to it. Instead, it enumerates four human things (theoretical virtues, deliberative virtues, moral virtues, and practical arts) whose presence in political communities (nations or cities) indicates that happiness is present in these political communities and that their citizens are already in possession of it (1.2-5).¹ The presence of these four human things seems to be the condition whose fulfillment will produce two kinds of happiness: the worldly happiness of this present life and the supreme or ultimate happiness of the life beyond. The opening sentence...