Greek letters in Arabic literature. Treatise of guidance towards the bliss of Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī Volume 1

Abū Naṣral-Fārābī’s “Treatise on Guidance to Bliss” (c.870-950 AD) is an ethical treatise, the contents of which are an exhortation to achieve true bliss through the supreme science of philosophy. The study of philosophy through the study of logic cultivates man’s intellectual faculties and enables him to distinguish the true from the false, so that he can act rightly in everything he does and for the whole period of his life. As al-Fārābī argues, the combination of cultivating the moral virtues along with the intellectual virtues is the path to the acquisition of virtue and the attainment of bliss. The treatise is based on Greek works translated in the ^9th century into Arabic, namely the Arabic translation of Aristotle’s Ethical Nicomachees and the unknown commentaries by Porphyry (234 – c. 305 AD) on the Ethical Nicomachees.