The Difference between Prophet and Philosopher in the Cosmology of Avenassar Alfarabi

Avenassar Alfarabi is one of the first Islamic philosophers who seriously faced with Greek philosophy and endeavored to adjust the philosophical thought with Islamic intellectual tradition. He, as a founder of Islamic philosophy, has been thought about the relation of philosophy/religious and wisdom/revelation and also providing the philosophical interpretation of revelation and prophecy, considered the proper philosophy as criteria for the religious. The commentators have been interpreted the relation between philosophy/religious and Prophet/philosopher in the philosophy of Alfarabi in different forms. The some of the commentators blamed the Alfarabi for he had preferred the philosopher to the prophet. This article endeavors to provide a balanced view via studying the different notions. In this article besides the introducing the anthropology of Alfarabi, it will be argued that in the philosophy of Alfarabi, the Prophet is a philosopher whose mission is to direction and guidance of people.