Al-Kindi was the first Muslim philosopher who compiled Islamic philosophical thought with a clear systematic. Al-Kindi's philosophical thought is a reflection of the doctrines he obtained from classical Greek sources and Neo-Platonic heritage combined with Islamic religious beliefs. Al-Kindi opened the discussion room as an effort to integrate philosophical and religious doctrines. Knowledge of God by Al-Kindi is referred to as early philosophy or first philosophy; philosophy which discusses al-haqq as telos which will end the whole work of philosophy. Al-Kindi divides reason based on each stage as follows; intellect which is always active (is the core of all reason and all objects of knowledge), potential intellect (mind that guarantees human readiness to understand things that may be rational and requires stimulation from outside), actual intellect (potential intellect that has gone out of its potential limit when the soul begins to understand things that are rational and abstract) and reason is born (mind that has been serious in understanding rational things and turning something potential into actual).
One of the factors that made it possible for Greek philosophy to be studied by Muslims was the existence of works of philosophical translations which were freely copied into Arabic either directly from Greek or from the original Siriac version (Nasution, 1973: 11). This translation movement lasted from 750 to 1000 AD (Nasir, 1996). Therefore, through these translations, Muslim thinkers became acquainted with the thoughts of Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonic teachings (Nasution, 1973) and then they developed and enriched them with an Islamic approach, so that a new discipline was born in the world of Islamic thought. known as Islamic Philosophy (al-Falsafah al-Islamiyah) with several figures such as al-Kindi (796-873 AD), al-Farabi (870-950 AD), Ibn Sina (980-1037 AD), al-Ghazali (1059-1111 AD), Ibn Rushd (1126-1198 AD) and others (Nasir, 1996). These figures have recognized reputations and influences not only in the medieval Islamic world but also in modern Western philosophers. The influence of these Muslim philosophers was so great that W. Montgomery Watt concluded that without them, European science and philosophy would not be able to develop as when their ancestors developed it for the first time (Nasir, 1996). Thus, Islamic philosophy has reached its peak of glory in the 9th and 11th centuries AD. In contrast to Western philosophy which developed into the modern century, the glory of Islamic philosophy was not able to go beyond the middle ages and began to enter an anti-climactic period in the 12th century, especially Ibn Rushd (Nasir, 1996). Among the Muslim philosophers namely Al-Kindi. Al-Kindi composed his philosophy in Baghdad, which at that time was still the capital of government and at the same time a center for the study of knowledge. It was also in this city that al-Kindi received a lot of moral and material support from the three caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, al Ma'mun, al-Mu'tasim and al-Watsiq. The three caliphs showed a high interest in knowledge and agreed to continue teaching and learning activities, scientific, philosophical and literary activities. According to Ibn Nadhim, al-Kindi's tendency was not only towards Greek philosophy, but al-Kindi also studied Indian, Chaldean and Harran religious studies (Basri, 2013:18). Despite all the imperfections of al-Kindi's systematic philosophy, he is still the most meritorious figure in opening access to Greek philosophy and science and building the foundations of Islamic philosophy for subsequent Muslim philosophers.
Al-Kindi and his socio-philosophical setting
Al-Kindi, alkindus, full name Abu Yusuf Ya'kub ibn Ishaq ibn Shabbah ibn Imran ibn Ismail Al-Ash'ats ibn Qais Al-Kindi (Soleh, 2013: 88), born in Kufah, present-day Iraq, 801 AD, during the time of the caliph Harun Al_Rasyid (786-809 AD) from the Bani Abbas dynasty (750-1258 AD). The name Al-Kindi itself is attributed to his ancestral clan or tribe, one of the major tribes of pre-Islamic times. According to Faud Ahwani, Al-Kindi was born into a noble, educated and wealthy family. Ismail Al-Ash'ats ibn Qais, his great-grandson, had embraced Islam during the time of the Prophet and became a friend of the Apostle. They then moved to Kufa. In Kufah, Al-Kindi's father, Ishaq ibn Shabbah, served as governor, during the Caliphs Al-Mahdsi (775-785 AD), Al-Hadi (785-876 AD), and Harun Al-Rashid (786-909 AD) ,
the reign of the Bani Abbas (750-1258 AD). His father died when Al-Kindi was still a child. Al-Kindi spent his childhood in Kufa memorizing the Koran, studying Arabic grammar, Arabic literature and arithmetic. Everything he learned at that time was a compulsory curriculum for all the children of his time in the Kufa region. Furthermore, Al-Kindi studied Fiqh and a new scientific study called Kalam. However, Al-Kindi's tendency was towards science and philosophy, especially when Al-Kindi left Kufah and lived in Baghdad (Basri, 2013). In the capital city of the Bani Abbas government, Al-Kindi devoted his attention to translating and studying philosophy and other rational thoughts that were rife at that time. According to Al-Qifti (1171-1248 AD), Al-Kindi translated many philosophical books, explained complex matters, and summed up his theories in a sophisticated way. This was possible because Al-Kindi was believed to have mastered both Greek and Syriac, the main languages of philosophical works at that time. Thanks to this ability, Al-Kindi was able to improve the results of other people's translations, for example the translation of Ibn Na'ima Al Himsi, a Christian translator, of the book Enneads by Plotinus (204-270 AD); it was this book of the Enneads which among Arab thinkers was later misunderstood as Aristotle's Theology book (Soleh, 2013: 89). For his strengths and reputation in philosophy and scholarship, Al-Kindi then met and became good friends with Caliph Al-Makmun, a caliph from the Abbasids who was very passionate about rational thought and philosophy. More than that, he was appointed as an adviser and palace teacher during the Caliphs Al-Mu'tasim and Al-Watsiq (Soleh, 2013). However, when Al-Mutawakkil became caliph in 847 AD, Al-Kindi had the same fate as other philosophers and theologians. After five years of going through difficult times during the reign of Al Muatawakkil, Al-Kindi died around 866 AD (Fakhry, 2001: 25). Historians gave the nickname to Al-Kindi as the "Arab philosopher" because he was the only Muslim philosopher of true Arab descent who descended from Ya'qub ibn Qahthan who lived in the South Arabian region. Al-Kindi is a very productive Islamic philosopher.
He has written many works covering various fields of knowledge. Ibnu Nadhim said that Al-Kindi has released 260 titles of works such as, Philosophy, Logic, Cosmology. However, only a small number of Al-Kindi's works reached the hands of people afterwards. Some traditions claim that Al-Kindi's works were lost during the leadership of Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (Basri, 2013). In the history of his life, besides being known as a philosopher, Al-Kindi is also famous as a chemist, a musicologist, astronomer, doctor, geographer, and even a musicologist. In his works, he focuses on logic and mathematics. He also wrote reviews of Aristotle's books (Murtiningsih, 2013: 239). In an effort to address the legacy of Greek philosophy, Al-Kindi's works clearly show that he was interested in the thoughts of Aristotle and Plato. Even the names of the two philosophers are often mentioned in his works. Despite Al-Kindi's lack of mastery of the Greek language, Al-Kindi, through the translation he obtained, was able to study Aristotle's major work entitled Metaphysics and write his comments on this work. Not only was it enough to write comments or Metaphysics, Al-Kindi also wrote comments on Aristotle's works such as Categorie, De Interpretatione, Analytica Posteriora and also comments on De Caelio. Apart from that, Al-Kindi also keeps Aristotle's dialogue work entitled Eudemus. Al-Kindi's enthusiasm for learning and deepening philosophy clearly shows an extraordinary desire to introduce Greek philosophy to Arabic speakers in order to oppose orthodox theologians who tend to be reluctant and reject
foreign knowledge (Basri, 2013: 36). Therefore, by tracing Al-Kindi's works, historians have determined that Al-Kindi was the first philosopher to explore the discipline of philosophy using Arabic as his medium of instruction. The difficulties Al-Kindi faced in introducing something unfamiliar to his scholarly colleagues and people of his time motivated him to always try to find Greek philosophical terms in an adequate Arabic vocabulary (Basri, 2013). The biggest contribution made by Al-Kindi is opening the doors of philosophy for Muslim scientists. In ancient times, Muslims were very opposed to studying philosophy, because they feared it would reduce their respect for God. However, Al-Kindi tried to build philosophical values and urged them to tolerate ideas from outside Islam (Murtiningsih, 2013: 240). Al-Kindi bridged the gap between the half-hearted intellectual approaches to the rigorous philosophical disciplines of his Muslim contemporaries. It is this approach and attitude that gives him the title of faylasof (philosopher), because what he introduces in the field of pure philosophy, actually invites only a few original ideas from him, even though he has free thinking.
