The Place of the Prophet in Ibn Sina's Ideal City

As a divine philosopher, Ibn Sina has dealt with politics in his metaphysical discussions. Apparently, he has not written an independent work on politics and has considered it to be a part of practical wisdom. In his view, the prophet represents the “ideal ruler” and revelation and tradition represent the law. Since, before him, Farabi has discussed politics extensively in his al-Siyasah al-madaniyyah (Civil Politics), Ibn Sina does not see any need to provide more explanations in this regard and deals with this field in short without presenting the details. However, he has discussed the quality of choosing a leader and devising laws for his utopia extensively. In fact, he has completed the same prophetic politics that Farabi had initiated previously. The present paper briefly deals with Ibn Sina’s political system in order to clarify the place of the prophet in the hierarchy of his utopia. In this way, the quality of establishing a utopia based on the “definitive text” as the best method of electing a ruler is clearly illustrated. Moreover, the authors demonstrate how the nature of Ibn Sina’s view of the caliphate and the Prophet’s successor bring him closer to the Imamiyyah political philosophy.