Jewish and Islamic Philosophers and the Role of the Prophet in Their Political Visions
To divide the view of the role of the prophet in Islam and Jewish writers' sense of the political order throughout history by looking solely at religion would be to ignore crucial elements that made up the perspective of these writers. Al-Farabi, for instance, was an Islamic philosopher of the 10th century whose political outlook was based more on Aristotelian ethics than it was on Islam, though his view of prophecy was shaped by his sense of Muhammad and the prophet's significance in Islam. Or there is the 12th century philosopher Judah Halevi, who, like Al-Farabi, viewed the philosophical order as a whole system complete in and of itself, independent of other systems. Yet, while Al-Farabi accepted the Aristotelian concept that Happiness was the ultimate end of humanity (the goal to be worked towards by society, or, "the City," which could be reached by exercising one's reason and operating virtuously), Halevi viewed that human reason had its limits and that it paled when compared to revelation: revelation alone could tell humans about God and themselves and the creation of the universe, whereas man and his finite reason could only speculate. For Halevi, religion was intimately united with his "anti-politics" view of a political order and essentially served to shape his role of the prophet in politics. As a Jew, Halevi viewed that the Jewish people owed allegiance to God, who was the Lawgiver and that throughout the history of the Hebrews, God and his prophets had made special covenants that served to set the Jews apart from other men as a "chosen race." These two philosophers of the Middle Ages were but two examples of the ways in which the Islamic and Jewish writers of history held differing views of prophecy, which shaped their view of the political order. This paper will discuss them and others as well in exploring this theme.
Al-Farabi viewed the idea of Plato's Philosopher-King in the light of Islamic tradition -- that virtue begins with knowledge of the interaction between the divine and the human. For Al-Farabi the Prophet-Legislator was the extension of this concept: the Prophet-Legislator serves as...
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