The Concept of Reason in al-Farabi's Thought and Its Relevance to Modern Islamic Education

Abstrak

This study is motivated by the urgency of presenting a concept of Islamic education that is capable of responding to the challenges of the modern era, which is marked by a literacy crisis, weak critical thinking skills, and the erosion of students' moral values. These conditions call for a reconstruction of the Islamic education paradigm that not only focuses on cognitive aspects but also emphasizes the formation of reason, character, and ethics as formulated by al-Farabi. This study aims to analyze the concept of reason in al-Farabi's thought, explain the process of human intellectual perfection through the hierarchy of reason, and examine its relevance to the development of modern Islamic education. Using qualitative research methods with a literature study approach, this study examines al-Farabi's primary works, particularly Risalah fi al-'Aql and al-Madīnah al-Fāḍilah, as well as a number of relevant secondary literature. The results show that al-Farabi's theory of reason, which includes potential reason, actual reason, acquired reason, and active reason, provides a strong philosophical foundation for the development of Islamic education that emphasizes the development of thinking skills, the formation of virtue, and the integration of intellectuality and morality. These findings indicate that al-Farabi's concept of reason has significant relevance in constructing a rational, humanistic, critical, and comprehensive paradigm of Islamic education oriented towards human perfection.