The competence of the human soul in Al-Farabi's philosophy

Competence refers to the realization of the potential powers inherent in a being to the highest extent, possessing the ability to bring strength to everything. In the thought of Al-Fârâbî, God is the most competent being and is an actual entity without harboring any potentiality. According to Al-Fârâbî, all beings come into existence by emanating from God, the most competent being. In this hierarchical system where beings exist in a hierarchical order, the ultimate goal of human, who is ontologically distant from God, is to reach God and attain true happiness sought only for itself without any intermediaries. In Al-Fârâbî's system, achieving this happiness is only possible through human competence. Competence, which is a prerequisite for reaching the ultimate goal of human happiness, can be seen as the key point of Al-Fârâbî's thought on existence, knowledge, morality, and politics. Because humans owe their existence to God, the most competent being, human aims for the actualization of the knowledge inherent in itself as a potentiality, thus aiming for competence. This process of competence also leads to moral competence through understanding virtues and engaging in virtuous actions. This process also plays a decisive role in determining the existence of the soul after death. There is a direct relationship between competence and the immortality of the soul. In Al-Fârâbî's system, the competence of the individual cannot be considered separate from the competence of society. It is understood that the concept of competence plays a key role in explaining many philosophical areas in Al-Fârâbî's system. In this study, the traces of the concept of competence in Al-Fârâbî's philosophy have been followed, and the meaning of this concept and the related philosophical areas have been identified. Fundamental philosophical areas such as the God-world relationship, God-human relationship, and human-human relationship are the areas where the thought of competence is visibly present in Al-Fârâbî's philosophy.