A Comparative Study of Utopia in Islamic Thinkers: A Case Study of the Views of Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi and Ibn Sina

The negation of painful worldly affairs and trying to depict a purely good world in the mind of a human being who has experienced a descent from heaven to the earth has a long history. This thought has resulted in the development of the idea of Utopia by Western and Eastern thinkers. Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi and Ibn Sina are among the scholars who have theorized in this regard and elaborated on the various dimensions of their own Utopia. The present study was conducted using a descriptive design and examining the existing documents regarding Ibn Sina and Tusi’s views of Utopia. The results of the study indicate that the differences between their descriptions of Utopia pertain to their theoretical approach, their views of the kind of leadership and attributes of the head of Utopia, Ibn Sina’s hierarchical and class-oriented view, and an accurate view of the components of Utopia in Ibn Sina’s philosophy in comparison to Tusi, while they both agree with each other with respect to their worldviews, the conditions they set for attaining the leadership of Utopia, and compromising view of the existing status. Evidently, given the Islamic worldview of both thinkers, the findings of this study could be a useful first step for portraying an Islamic city.