Al-Maʿarri
Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri (26 December 973 – 9 May 1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer from Maarat al-Numan (Syria).
Quotes
[edit]- If you will do some deed before you die,
Remember not this caravan of death,
But have belief that every little breath
Will stay with you for an eternity.- As quoted in The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala (1909) by Henry Baerlein, XLVII
- 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!
- As quoted in "The Meditations of Al-Maʿarri", Studies in Islamic Poetry (1921) by w:Reynold A. Nicholson, Verse 129, p. 110
- 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
- Original: اِثْنَانِ أَهْلُ الْأَرْضِ ذُو عَقْلٍ بِلَا دِينٍ وَآخَرُ دَيِّنٌ لَا عَقْلَ لَهُ
- Variant translations:
- The world holds two classes of men; intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.
- 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
Studies in Islamic Poetry
[edit]- Hope as thou wilt in heat or cold,
It matters not amidst the surge
Of woes that whelmed thee from of old
And whence thou never canst emerge.- Quoted in Studies in Islamic Poetry, Chapter 2, p. 43
- 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."- As quoted in "The Meditations of Al-Maʿarri", in Studies in Islamic Poetry, Chapter 2, p. 46
- And I, albeit I come in Time's late hour,
Achieve what lay not in the ancients' power.- Saqt-uz-Zand, Chapter 1, p. 20, also quoted in Studies in Islamic Poetry, Chapter 2, p. 49
- Do not unjustly eat fish 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 noble ladies.
- And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking eggs;
- for injustice is the worst of crimes.
- And spare the honey which the bees get industriously
- 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 wish that I
- Perceived my way before my hair went gray!
- As quoted in "The Meditations of Al-Maʿarri", Studies in Islamic Poetry p. 134-135
Quotes about Al-Maʿarri
[edit]- Abu'l-Ala is a poet many centuries ahead of his time.
- Alfred von Kremer, quoted The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala, p. 1
- 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, quoted in A History of the Arabs, also quoted The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala, p. 1
See also
[edit]External links
[edit]
- 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