Al-Ma'arri

The world holds two classes of men; intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.

Abu al-'Ala Al-Ma'arri (26 December 973 – 9 May 1057) was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer from Maarat al-Numan (Syria).

Quotes

• هذا جَنَاهُ أبي عليَّ     وَمَا جَنَيتُ عَلَى أَحَدِ
  • This is my father’s crime against me,
    which I myself committed against none.
    • Al-Ma'arri's selfwritten epitaph

• اِثْنَانِ أَهْلُ الْأَرْضِ ذُو عَقْلٍ بِلَا     دِينٍ وَآخَرُ دَيِّنٌ لَا عَقْلَ لَهُ
  • The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
    Those with brains, but no religion,
    And those with religion, but no brains.
    • As quoted in The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (1984) by Amin Maalouf, p. 37
  • Variant translations:
    • The world holds two classes of men; intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.
      • As quoted in A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern (1906) by John Mackinnon Robertson, Vol. I, Ch. VIII: Freethought under Islam, p. 269
    • The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.
      • This form of the statement has been most commonly misattributed — to Avicenna, in A Rationalist Encyclopaedia: A Book of Reference on Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, and Science (1950) by Joseph McCabe, p. 43, and later to Averroes, in The Atheist World‎ (1991) by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, p. 46.

• A little doubt is better than total credulity.
  • As quoted in Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out (2003) by Ibn Warraq, p. 68

• Sometimes you may find a man skillful in his trade, perfect in sagacity and in the use of arguments, but when he comes to religion he is found obstinate, so does he follow in the old groove. Piety is implanted into human nature; it is deemed a sure refuge. To the growing child, that which falls from his mother's lips is a lesson that abides with him all his life. Monks in their cloisters and devotees in their mosques accept their creed just as a story is handed down from him who tells it, without distinguishing between a true interpreter and a false. If one of these had found his kin among the Magians, or among the Sabians, he would have become nearly or quite like them.
  • Risalat al-Ghufran (The Epistle of Forgiveness)

• Whenever I reflect, my reflecting upon what I suffer only rouses me to blame him that begot me.
  And I gave peace to my children, for they are in the bliss of non-existence which surpasses all the pleasures of this world.
  Had they come to life, they would have endured a misery casting them to destruction in trackless wildernesses.
  • As quoted in Studies in Islamic Poetry (1921) by Reynold A. Nicholson

• Methink I am thrice-imprisoned—ask not me
  Of news that need no telling—
  By loss of sight, confinement in my house,
  And this vile body for my spirit’s dwelling.
  • Translation of Reynold Nicholson, as quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani

Saqt az-Zand

• And I, albeit I come in Time's late hour,
  Achieve what lay not in the ancients' power.
  • Chapter 1, p. 20, also quoted in Studies in Islamic Poetry, Chapter 2, p. 49

• Fear of death pushed Seven Sleepers into a cave,
  Made Noah and his son build a ship;
  Nor did Moses and Adam think it pleasant to die
  Though they were promised paradise.
  • Translation of Kevin Blankinship[1]

Luzumiyat

• Do not unjustly eat what the water has given up, and do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
  Or the white (milk) of mothers who intended its pure draught for their young, not for noble ladies.
  And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking their eggs; for injustice is the worst of crimes.
  And spare the honey which the bees get betimes by their industry from the flowers of fragrant plants;
  For they did not store it that it might belong to others, nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
  I washed my hands of all this; and would that I had perceived my way ere my temples grew hoar!
  • 1. 232, 8

• This world is such an abode that if those present here
  Have their wits entire, they will never weep for the absent ones.
  • 1. 142

• How sad that I returned, how sad,
  Instead of dying at Baghdad!
  I say, whene'er things fall amiss,
  "My coming home hath brought me this."
  • 1. 303, 5

• They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are a fiction from first to last. O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth. Then perish the fools who forged the (religious) traditions or interpreted them!
  • 2. 196. 3.

Quotes about Al-Maʿarri

• Abu'l-Ala is a poet many centuries ahead of his time.
  • Alfred von Kremer

• His poems generally known as the Luzumiyat arrest attention by their boldness and originality as well as by the sombre and earnest tone which pervades them.
  • Reynold A. Nicholson

• If I had but a garden for a bower
  Wherein the roses of Damascus flower,
  How happy, with the Luzumiyat in hand,
  To pass the afternoon and sunset hour!
  • Clinton Scollard

• His asceticism, his deep sense of right and wrong, his powerful intellect, his prodigious memory, and his wide range of learning, are alike acknowledged by both friend and foe.
  • Ibn Khallikan

See also

• Al-Mutanabbi
• Antinatalism
• Philosophical pessimism
• Veganism

External links

• R. A. Nicholson: Studies in Islamic Poetry, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 1921
• Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri: Siqt-uz-Zand, 1st Edition, Bulaq (Egypt), 1286 AH
• Profile in Encyclopædia Britannica
• Works by Al-Maʿarri at Project Gutenberg
• Al-Maʿarri's poems (in English)
• The Luzumiyat