Al-Farabi’s Ideal Head of State
Every Islamic state is ruled by the ruler, or as later European Political scientists would call him the Sovereign. Plato after developing the matter of the government of his ideal city in his Republic had made the omnipotent and omniscient philosopher sovereign who should have no other interest but that of the affairs of state. Al-Farabi starts from the nature of the workers of leadership and impresses his readers that what is wanted for the office is the power of making proper deductions.
According to Al-Farabi, his Rais should be such superior man, who, by his very nature and upbringing, does not submit before any power or instructions of others. He must have the potentialities to convey his sense to others for complete submission. Rosenthal was of the view, “He is the Imam, the first ruler over the ideal city-state, over the ideal nation and over the whole inhabited earth. The philosopher-prophet, in the opinion of Al-Farabi, is alone qualified to help man, a citizen to reach his true human destiny, where his moral and intellectual perfection permit him to perceive God, under the guidance of the divinely revealed Shariat. Those ruled by the first ruler are the excellent, best and happy citizens.”
Al-Farabi contemplatively points out the virtuous qualities of his ideal Head of State, who should be competent to control the actions of all in the State and must be in possession of latest intellect as well as the gained intellect. All such refined and high qualities including his political and literal caliber make him an Ideal Sovereign for the overall interest of the society and the nation. He enumerated tweleve attributes of an ideal Sovereign:
1. He must possess persuasion and imagination to attain perfection as well as a philosopher skilled in the speculative science.
2. He must be physically sound with meticulous understanding.
3. He must have visualization of all that is said.
4. He must have a retentive and sharp memory.
5. He should discuss the matters with least possible arguments and must have authority to get the work done.
6. He must have power to convey to others exactly according to his wish and he has profound love of learning and knowledge.
7. He must have perfect capacity for a comprehensive knowledge and prescription of the theoretical and practical sciences and art, as well as for the virtues leading to good deeds.
8. He must shun off playfulness and control over anger and passions.
9. Al-Farabi’s ideal Rais must have love of truth, persuasion of justice and hatred of hypocrisy, knavery and duplicity.
10. He must vie for utmost happiness to his subjects and he should do away with all forces of tyranny and oppressions.
11. He must have power to distribute justice without any effort, fearless in doing things as he thinks best to be done.
12. He must serve the people of his state from all internal and external dangers. He must be in possession of considerable wealth, so that he should not prone to greed and lust.
Al-Farabi fully realizes that these fine qualities cannot be found in one single human being, so he says that one without just five or six of these qualities would make a fairly good leader. If however, even five or six of them are not found in a person, he would have one who has been brought up under a leader with these qualities, and would thus seen to prefer some kind of hereditary leadership, with the important condition that the heir should follow the footsteps of his worthy predecessor. In case even such a person is not available, it is preferable to have a council of two or even five members possessing an aggregate of these qualities provided at least one of them is a Hakim, i-e one who is able to know the wants of the people and visualize the needs of the state as a whole. This Hakim is to Farabi a desideratum of every kind of government, and if such a one is not procurable then the State is bound to be shattered to atoms.