Contrary to a book that I connected to it, Plato's ideal state, this book was quite a difficult and sometimes abstract read. A big part of the book was made up of metaphysical philosophy on God and existence, which was paralleled quite a bit with Plotinus Enneaden.

The last part of the book made up Al-Farabi's political philosophy, which was the part that interested me more. In this aspects Al-Farabi finds a balance with, dare I say it, modern-day humanistic values, and Plato's philosopher king. On the one hand, Al-Farabi does plead for a sort of philosopher king that can guide his citizens toward happiness. On the other hand, he argues that in a democracy, there is a higher likelihood of philosophers being present to preach about the higher values of happiness. As I understood it, this happiness is developed by fully actualizing one's intellectual capacity. It might be a stretch, but this puts Al-Farabi in line with Kants Sapere Aude?