The analysis of the ideas that al-Fārābī inherited from Plato’s Laws has remained mostly unattended, albeit it would contribute to a better understanding of a problem that has been a topic of discussion between those who follow Leo Strauss’s interpretation and their critics: the tension between religion and politics both in Plato’s Laws and in al-Fārābī’s political philosophy. In this article, I argue that a comprehensive interpretation of al-Fārābī’s political philosophy helps to clarify the aforementioned tension, polemically interpreted by Strauss as an antinomy.
