TREATISE ON THE NEED TO STRIVE FOR AN EXCELLENT STATE

This year Kazakhstan and the entire international community are commemorating the 1150^th anniversary of birth of ABU NASR MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD IBN TARHAN IBN UZLAG AL-FARABI AT-TURKI (870-950), great medieval philosopher and scholar of the East (born in Farab/Otrar on the territory of modern Kazakhstan), who is credited by academia as the Second Teacher of the World.

 

40th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) endorsed the worldwide celebration of Al-Farabi’s jubilee by its General Resolution 68 of 25 November 2019. Subsequently, the Executive Board of UNESCO included it in its Calendars of Events for 2020, and kindly requested all the states to support it and contribute to this end.

 

In this vein, the Embassy of Kazakhstan to South Africa is pleased to publish on its website and Facebook page one of the Al-Farabi’s masterpieces, entitled:

 

TREATISE ON THE NEED TO STRIVE FOR AN EXCELLENT STATE

 

40 Words of Wisdom on the world order, human being, society, and state.

 

Please, kindly find the Word 1 from this book below, in the doc and ppt formats.

 

Word 1

 

THE FIRST EXISTENT: THE FIRST CAUSE IS ONE

 

1. The First Existent is the First Cause of the existence of all the other existents.

 

2. Only the First is free of every kind of deficiency.

 

3. At the same time, there must be in everything else (apart form the First) some kind of deficiency, either one or more than one.

 

4. As for the First, it is free of all their deficiencies.

 

5. This is due to the fact that the First’s existence is the most excellent and precedes every other existence.

 

6. No existence can be more excellent than the First’s existence.

 

7. No existence can be prior to the First’s existence.

 

8. Thus, the First has the highest kind of excellent existence and the most elevated rank of perfect existence.

 

9. And since the First has supreme and perfect existence and substance, its existence cannot be negated at all (e. it cannot be adulterated by non-existence at all).

 

10. Because non-being and negation (along with opposites, polarities) exist only in the sub-celestial (sublunar)

 

11. Yet, non-being is the non-existence of what should exist.

 

12. Hence, the First Existent can in no way have existence potentially (since its existent is real and true).

 

13. And there is no possibility whatso­ever that the First should not exist.

 

14. From the foregoing it necessary follows that the First is without beginning.

 

15. And the First is everlasting in its substance and essence.

 

16. The First is also without being in need of any other thing, which would provide its permanence in order to be eternal.

 

17. The First’s substance suffices for its permanence and its everlasting existence.

 

18. No other existence at all can be like the First’s existence.

 

19. Nor is there any existence of the same rank with the existence of the First.

 

20. Similarly, nor is there any existence, which rank of existence the First does not have already.

 

21. Moreover, the First is the existent for whose existence there can be no cause.

 

22. e. there can be no cause, through which, or out of which, or for the sake of which, the First has come to exist.

 

23. This is due to the fact that the First is not a

 

24. Nor is the First at all sustained by a matter or a substratum.

 

25. On contrary, the First’s existence is free of all matter and substratum.

 

26. Moreover, nor does the First have form, because form can exist only in matter.

 

27. If the First had form, its essence would be composed of matter and form.

 

28. And if it were like that, the First would be composed by the two parts.

 

29. With that, the First would be sustained by the above-mentioned two parts.

 

30. Moreover, the First’s existence would have a cause then.

 

31. Hence, each of the First Existent’s parts would be the cause of its being (existence) in aggregate with other.

 

32. But we have already established that it is the First Cause.

 

33. Likewise, the First’s existence has no purpose and no aim.

 

34. Moreover, the First’s existence does not need, and could not need merely fulfilling any aim and any purpose.

 

35. Otherwise, that would have been a cause of the First’s existence, so that it would not be the First Cause.

 

36. Nevertheless, the First has not derived its existence from something else, prior to it.

 

And even less so, the First has not derived its existence from something else, inferior to it.