Analyzing Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’s Procedural Treatment of Philosophy

Throughout history, there have been various treatments of philosophy. What we think of philosophy plays an important role both in accepting or rejecting philosophy and in defining the framework of our philosophy. In the history of Islamic philosophy, Ikhwān al-Ṣafā has put forward a different treatment. In this inquiry we analyze this treatment and show that philosophy for them is a three-stage procedure. The first stage is the love of true philosophical sciences and it is exactly this stage that is the ground of philosophy's appellation. This stage provides the power and fuel of the exhausting path of the second stage. The second stage is the knowledge of the realities of beings to the extent of human strength, which encompasses all philosophical sciences of logics and mathematics and physics and divine sciences (including practical wisdom). And the third stage is word and deed in harmony with science, that is, one must have the skill or virtue or art of acting in accordance with science. In order to act in this way, one must also have the instinct to recognize the appropriate action in the relevant situation. With this procedure, unlike other sciences and other matters, we do not seek an output, rather the procedure itself is beauty and desired. Ikhwān al-Ṣafā have reached this treatment by systematic combination.