This division of intrinsic from relational (hypothetical)...

This division of intrinsic from relational (hypothetical) necessity undergirds Avicenna’s essence existence distinction and his central claim that nature is contingent in itself, although necessary in relation to its causes. Al-Farabi found the logic of Koranic promises and threats by seeing prophets in the role Plato had assigned to poets: naturalizing higher truths imagery and legislation.

(Honderich, 2005) Al-Fārābī is also called Abunaser, in Latin, Alpharabius (870- 950), studied and taught in Baghdad when it was the cultural capital of the Islamic world, responsive to the philosophical and scientific legacy of late antiquity. Al-Fārābī was highly instrumental in effecting a transition of Greek philosophy, last publicly known in its entirety in sixth-century Alexandria, into Islamic culture.

Despite ongoing opposition because of philosophy’s identification with pagan and Christian authors, al-Fārābī succeeded in naturalizing Western philosophy in the Islamic world, where it retained vitality for the next three hundred years. Al-Fārābī because known as “the second teacher,” after Aristotle the main source of philosophical information.

His summaries and interpretations of the teachings of Aristotle and Plato were widely read, and his attempt as synthesizing their views was very influential. Believing in the universal nature of truth and holding Plato and Aristotle in the highest esteem, he minimized their differences and adapted Neoplatonic teachings that incorporated elements of both traditions.

Unlike the first philosopher of the Islamic world, the ninth-century al-Kindī, al-Fārābī was in possession of full Arabic translations of many of the most important texts of classical times and of some major Hellenistic commentaries on them.

His own commentaries and digests of the works of Plato and Aristotle made them more accessible to later generations of scholars, even as his relatively independent treatises established a high standard of logical rigor and subtlety for later Muslim and Jewish philosophers.

Avicenna found his Metaphysics commentary indispensable for understanding Aristotle’s text, while Maimonides recommended all his writings, calling them “pure flour.” Medieval Scholastic thought, however, was more interested in Averroes and Avicenna than in al-Fārābī.