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
Remember not this caravan of death, But have belief that every little breath Will stay with you for an eternity.
 * If you will do some deed before you die,
 * 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 Reynold A. Nicholson, Verse 129, p. 110

Those with brains, but no religion, And those with religion, but no brains.
 * The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
 * 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

 * 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

 * 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