Practical wisdom

To explain Mulla Sadra’s viewpoint of the relationship of practical wisdom and Sharia, one needs to turn to the explanation of human soul and its perfection (happiness). It should be mentioned that the nature of practical wisdom and its principles are specified based on the definition that is offered of happiness. According to Mulla Sadra, true happiness lies in human soul’s acquisition of rational truths and becoming a subject to the divine forms and the highest possible state for it is understanding divine presence; this is considered to be the ultimate goal of Sharia and divine laws. In fact, Mulla Sadra introduces practical wisdom to be part of Sharia and this is why Sharia and practical wisdom are thought by him to be pursuing the same objective. Generally speaking, relationship of Sharia and practical wisdom is envisaged as an extension of the “mode of absolute generality and specificity”; because according to Mulla Sadra, practical wisdom, as the act of teaching the method of advancement of the stations and stage of God-wayfaring and path of servitude, is part of Sharia. One may seek for the cause of this in the richness of Islamic doctrines in the domain of practical wisdom and explanation of its patterns in religion and Sharia; however, richness of Islamic doctrines and Sharia does not make us needless of the explanation and presentation of effective solutions for application of practical wisdom. This is in fact exactly what Mulla Sadra has neglected in this area.     

Al-Farabi's practical philosophy is one of the most important pillars of his thought on the relationship between knowledge, politics, and human happiness. This article examines Al-Farabi's reading of Greek practical philosophy, especially the ideas of Aristotle and Plato, in the context of Islamic thought. Al-Farabi, as the founder of Islamic philosophy and a second teacher, attempted to reinterpret the Greek rational system within the framework of the religious Medina. by accepting the epistemological and ontological foundations of Greek philosophy, he attempted to create a synthesis between practical philosophy and the Islamic civil system. This research is conducted using a descriptive-analytical method and examines Farabi's practical philosophy and its relationship with the concept of "Mellah". It uses content analysis to examine key concepts such as "Medina Fazeleh", "Rais awwal" and "Mellah" in Farabi's works. The findings of the research show that by introducing the first head (philosopher-prophet), Al-Farabi is trying to design a social system in which reason and revelation are aligned with a common goal (realization of Qasavi's happiness) and social relations and civil order are regulated and mapped on the natural order. In this system, philosophy and religion complement each other as two paths for the transmission of rational knowledge and public persuasion in society. The results of the research show that Al-Farabi designed an independent system that, although inspired by Greek philosophy, has an independent logic within its intellectual framework.