# Al-Ma'arri

Abu al-'Ala Al-Ma'arri (26 December 973 – 9 May 1057) was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer from Ma'arrat al-Numan (then part of the Abbasid Caliphate, today part of Syria).

## Quotes

* هذا جَنَاهُ أَبي عَلَيَّ وما جَنَيْتُ عَلَى أَحَدْ
** This wrong was by my father done To me, but ne’er by me to one.
*** As quoted in Three Great Abbasid Poets: Abu Nuwas, Al-Mutanabbi & Al-Ma'arri, Lives & Poems (2015) by Paul Smith, with the following explanation: "Abu 'l-'Alá regarded procreation as a sin and universal annihilation as the best hope for humanity. He acted in accordance with his opinions, for he never married, and he is said to have desired that the following verse should be inscribed on his grave".
** Alternate Translation of Kevin Blankinship : This is my father’s crime against me, which I myself committed against none.
* Men of acute mind call me an ascetic, but they are wrong in their diagnosis. Although I disciplined my desires, I only abandoned worldly pleasures because the best of these withdrew themselves from me.
** As quoted in Studies in Islamic Poetry (1921) by Reynold A. Nicholson
* 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)
* Some worse people than I have entered Paradise! But it is not everybody’s fortune to be granted forgiveness, it is like wealth in the Fleeting World.
** Spoken by poet Aws ibn Hajar in Risalat al-Ghufran.
* 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
* We laugh, but inept is our laughter; We should weep and weep sore, Who are shattered like glass, and thereafter Re-moulded no more!
** As quoted in Three Great Abbasid Poets: Abu Nuwas, Al-Mutanabbi & Al-Ma'arri, Lives & Poems (2015) by Paul Smith
* 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

* They know me well. How could they conceal a resplendent sun?
** Translation of Safwan Khatib
* 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
* ألا في سبيلِ المَجْدِ ما أنا فاعل عَفافٌ وإقْدامٌ وحَزْمٌ ونائِل
** Isn’t it the path to glory: what I have done, My virtue, courage, resolution and generosity?
*** Translation of Safwan Khatib
* ولو أنّي حُبِيتُ الخُلْدَ فَرْداً لمَا أحبَبْتُ بالخُلْدِ انفِرادا فلا هَطَلَتْ عَلَيّ ولا بأرْضي سَحائبُ ليسَ تنْتَظِمُ البِلادا
** If immortality were offered to me exclusively, I would not accept to be its sole beneficiary. Let the rain refrain from watering me and my land, if its clouds do not cover the entire country.
*** Page 198 Arabic:

### Luzumiyat

* اِثْنَانِ أَهْلُ الْأَرْضِ ذُو عَقْلٍ بِلَا دِينٍ وَآخَرُ دَيِّنٌ لَا عَقْلَ لَهُ
** 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
** Variant translations:
*** We mortals are composed of two great schools, Enlightened knaves or else religious fools.
**** Translation of Reynold Nicholson, as quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani
*** 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
*** 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.
* 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
* History shows that many freethinkers, not daring to express their thoughts freely, have sheltered themselves behind a religion in which they disbelieved. Such was Euripides, and such was Ma'arri. In the works of both we find three elements:
       (a) orthodox religious beliefs;
       (b) rational doubts as to the truth of these beliefs;
       (c) philosophical views inconsistent with these beliefs.
** Reynold A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Poetry (1921)

## See also

* Al-Mutanabbi
* Abu Nuwas
* 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
* ↑ As quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani
* ↑ Lange, C. (2021). The Epistle of Forgiveness or A Pardon to Enter the Garden, by Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, vol. 1: A Vision of Heaven and Hell Preceded by Ibn al-Qāriḥ’s Epistle. Edited and translated by Geert Jan van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler. JAOS, 135(4), 851–854. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.135.4.851
* ↑ Penseur libre ou libre penseur: Abû l-'Alâ' Al-Ma'arrî Revisité. Groupe d’études et de recherches pour le français langue internationale.
* ↑ As quoted in "The Meditations of Al-Maʿarri", Studies in Islamic Poetry p. 134-135
* ↑ Studies in Islamic Poetry, 1921
* ↑ As quoted in "The Meditations of Al-Maʿarri", in Studies in Islamic Poetry, Chapter 2, p. 46
* ↑ As quoted in "The Meditations of Al-Maʿarri", Studies in Islamic Poetry (1921) by Reynold A. Nicholson, Verse 129, p. 110
* ↑ As quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani
* ↑ As quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani
* ↑ As quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani
* ↑ As quoted in The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala (1920) by Ameen Rihani