Reason and Religion in Farabi's Viewpoint

The relation between reason and religion has been an important issue among theologians and philosophers. After becoming familiar with Greek rationalism, some Muslims opposed it, because they took rationalism as a foreign cultural product. Far-sighted Muslims, on the contrary, welcomed it. They believed that rationalism and the basic principles of religion are not opposed. And regarding the cases they saw conflict between reason and religion, they reinterpreted the religious issues as far as possible and if it was impossible, they would prefer the revelation. They believed that reason, like the revelation, is a God-given gift and both of them are originated from one source. Moreover, they believed that rationalism is not a Greek product, because before acquaintance with Greek philosophy, Muslims were dealing with rational topics such as compulsion and choice, decree and destiny, intermediate position, faith and infidelity etc. On the other hand, they believed that there are rational elements in the essence of religion which must be interpreted and explained. Farabi is among prominent Muslim philosophers who believed in harmony between reason and religion. This paper tries to explain his view on this regard.