%0 Journal Article %T The Comparison between Farabi's Concept of the Necessary Being with Plotinus’ One %J Philosophy of Religion %I University of Tehran %Z 2008-7063 %A Tabarai, Mahnaz %A Abasian Chaleshtari, Mohamad Ali %D 2017 %\ 09/23/2017 %V 14 %N 3 %P 545-569 %! The Comparison between Farabi's Concept of the Necessary Being with Plotinus’ One %K Grace %K One/ Ahad %K Necessary being %K Plotinus %K Farabi %R 10.22059/jpht.2017.209199.1005378 %X In Plotinus’thought based on certain grounds like the infinity of Ahad, the denial of its immanence, the meta-existence nature of the interpretation of causality  in emanation, God is  the wholly other, neither nameable nor describable. Plotinus’s Ahad is not conceivable, neither by intellect nor by intuition. The only way to grasp him is to go beyond intuition, where the dichotomy between the observer and the observed becomes clear. Farabi, according to the Plotinian theory of grace, gives a description of the Necessary Being that despite some similarities that it has with the idea of the One in Plotinus, under the effect of the Islamic teachings and theories, namely the metaphysical distinction between being and essence, differs a lot from the Plotinian thought. Therefore he regards the Necessary Being as the being whose nature and essence are necessary, and that the assumption of their non-existence is impossible. He needs no other being to necessitate his being but is himself the cause of all beings. So, he is simple and non-composite. And because it is simple, it is not definable. Since God is simple in nature, his attributes are one with nature and the universe's creation was invented. %U https://jpht.ut.ac.ir/article_64486_5bb957f3a1ef656cd153f034a74ac405.pdf