 It is precisely in this connection that religion, milla, as al-Farabi views it, has its place. According to him, religion is the ensemble of beliefs and rules of conduct governing a society. It is so-to-speak its ideological and legal constitution designed by its first ruler to direct its citizens towards human perfection and thus to contribute simultaneously to the attainment of individual happiness and the well-being of the city. As a consequence, on al-Farabi’s account, religion is essentially an instrument intended for application; it cannot be considered a sphere of knowledge, wisdom, and truth on its own. This notion of religion and its place within the frame of falsafa madaniyya had a tremendous impact on subsequent thinkers in the Islamic world—such as Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl, and Ibn Rushd—as well as on the manner in which al-Farabi’s thought and, more particularly, what is usually referred to as his ‘political philosophy’ have been assessed in Western historiography. In order to get a clearer idea of these issues, they shall be examined in the sequence just indicated: from the foundation, al-Farabi’s philosophy of society  (section 2),  across the principle of similitude determining the relation of man, society, and cosmos  (section 3),  towards religion and the art of ruling  (section 4).