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Powers and actions (al-quwa wal-af'al)

القوى والأفعال

Ibn Sina treats powers and actions together in the sixth section of Book I, Fann 1, in one part and one chapter; the part on powers has six chapters 1. Each power is known from the action it is the source of, and each action comes from a power 1. Physicians recognise three kinds of power: psychic, natural and vital 1. Galen and most physicians place a principal organ as the seat of each power; Aristotle holds that all of them originate in the heart 1 2.

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Overview

Ibn Sina treats faculties and acts together in the sixth lesson of the Canon's first book — a discourse and a chapter, the discourse opening with the faculties in six sections 1. Each is defined through the other: every faculty is a principle of an act, every act issues from a faculty 1. The physicians count three genera: the psychic, the natural and the vital 1. Galen and many sages held each faculty has a principal organ as its seat; Aristotle that the heart is the source of them all.

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Medicine

People and things also explored

Anatomy· Disease (al-marad)· The four elements (al-arkan)· Health (al-sihha)· Humours (al-akhlat)· Medical treatment (al-mu'alaja)· Regimen of health (al-tadbir)· Symptoms and signs (al-a'rad wal-dala'il)

Sources

  1. The Canon of Medicine, vol. 1 (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1999) , p.94
  2. The Canon of Medicine, vol. 1 (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1999) , p.95
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islam.museum contributors. “Powers and actions (al-quwa wal-af'al)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/powers-and-actions/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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In his commentary on the Canon's anatomy, Ibn al-Nafis says that religious restraint and compassion kept him from dissecting himself. He therefore relied on earlier practitioners, chiefly Galen, for the shapes of the inner organs, and on reasoned inquiry for their functions.