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The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-ALA
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106 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
About the author
Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī
26 books82 followersAbul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri (Arabic أبو العلاء المعري Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, full name أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaimān al-Tanūẖī al-Maʿarrī, born 973 CE / AH 363, died 1058 CE/ AH 449) was a blind Syrian philosopher, poet, and writer.
He was a controversial rationalist of his time, attacking the dogmas of religion rejecting the claim that Islam or any other religion possessed the truths they claim and considered the speech of prophets as a lie (literally, "forge") and "impossible" to be true. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. He was also a vegan who argued for animal rights.
In 2013, almost a thousand years after his death, a Jihadist group beheaded the statue of Al Ma'arri during the conflict in Syria. Al Ma'arri remains widely cited among modern Arab atheists.
Al-Maʿarri was a skeptic in his beliefs and denounced superstition and dogmatism in religion. Thus, he has been described as a pessimistic freethinker. One of the recurring themes of his philosophy was the rights of reason against the claims of custom, tradition, and authority.
Al-Maʿarri taught that religion was a "fable invented by the ancients", worthless except for those who exploit the credulous masses.
Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.
Al-Maʿarri criticized many of the dogmas of Islam, such as the Hajj, which he called, "a heathen's journey."
He rejected claims of any divine revelation. His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward.
His religious skepticism and positively anti-religious views are expressed in a poem which states, "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains."
He was equally sarcastic towards the religion of Islam as he was towards Judaism and Christianity. Al-Ma'arri remarked that monks in their cloisters or devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born among Magians or Sabians they would have become Magians or Sabians.
More: http://www.humanistictexts.org/al_ma&...
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/isis/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://futiledemocracy.wordpress.com/...
He was a controversial rationalist of his time, attacking the dogmas of religion rejecting the claim that Islam or any other religion possessed the truths they claim and considered the speech of prophets as a lie (literally, "forge") and "impossible" to be true. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. He was also a vegan who argued for animal rights.
In 2013, almost a thousand years after his death, a Jihadist group beheaded the statue of Al Ma'arri during the conflict in Syria. Al Ma'arri remains widely cited among modern Arab atheists.
Al-Maʿarri was a skeptic in his beliefs and denounced superstition and dogmatism in religion. Thus, he has been described as a pessimistic freethinker. One of the recurring themes of his philosophy was the rights of reason against the claims of custom, tradition, and authority.
Al-Maʿarri taught that religion was a "fable invented by the ancients", worthless except for those who exploit the credulous masses.
Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.
Al-Maʿarri criticized many of the dogmas of Islam, such as the Hajj, which he called, "a heathen's journey."
He rejected claims of any divine revelation. His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward.
His religious skepticism and positively anti-religious views are expressed in a poem which states, "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains."
He was equally sarcastic towards the religion of Islam as he was towards Judaism and Christianity. Al-Ma'arri remarked that monks in their cloisters or devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born among Magians or Sabians they would have become Magians or Sabians.
More: http://www.humanistictexts.org/al_ma&...
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/isis/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://futiledemocracy.wordpress.com/...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 5, 2022
“If miracles were wrought in ancient years,
Why not to-day, O Heaven-cradled seers?
The highway’s strewn with dead, the lepers weep,
If ye but knew,—if ye but saw their tears!”
-Abu al-Ala al-Maarri
I can read Arabic and Persian but I cannot say I am fluid in either. There are certain words here and there that I can catch: when I tell you this is some fantastic poetry I do not say that lightly. English poetry, as I have already expressed, is generally terrible because the language is not poetic. But Arabic, Persian? These languages are the backbone of the global poetic effort. This poetry is so fantastic, that it somewhat survived the English translation. Just from the Arabic and Persian I know, I have a blueprint of what it might sound like in and I am so jealous of the people that get to read this and comprehend it fully. Highly recommend it, and a very short read.
Favourite rubaiyat:
1-"Or sleep—and shall it be eternal sleep
Somewhither in the bosom of the deep
Infinities of cosmic dust, or here
Where gracile cypresses the vigil keep!”
2-“Methinks Allah divides me to complete
His problem, which with Xs is replete;
For I am free and I am too in chains
Groping along the labyrinthine street”
3-“And round the Well how oft my Soul doth grope
Athirst; but lo! my Bucket hath no Rope:
I cry for water, and the deep, dark Well
Echoes my wailing cry, but not my hope.”
4-“The I in me standing upon the brink
Would leap into the Well to get a drink;
But how to rise once in the depth, I cry,
And cowardly behind my logic slink.”
5-“Apply thy wit, O Brother, here and there
Upon this and upon that; but beware
Lest in the end—ah, better at the start
Go to the Tinker for a slight repair”
6-“Another said: “The creeping worm hath shown,
In her discourse on human flesh and bone,
That Man was once the bed on which she slept—
The walking dust was once a thing of stone.”
7-“The wine’s forbidden,” say these honest folk,
But for themselves the law they will revoke;
The snivelling sheikh says he’s without a garb,
When in the tap-house he had pawned his cloak.”
8-“Carouse, ye sovereign lords! The wheel will roll
Forever to confound and to console:
Who sips to-day the golden cup will drink
Mayhap to-morrow in a wooden bowl—”
9-“The thunder hath a grandeur, but the rains,
Without the thunder, quench the thirst of Earth”
10-“Allah, my sleep is woven through, it seems,
With burning threads of night and golden beams;
But when my dreams are evil they come true;
When they are not, they are, alas! but dreams”
11-“The subtle ways of Destiny I know;
In me she plays her game of “Give and Go.”
Misfortune I receive in cash, but joy,
In drafts on Heaven or on the winds that blow.”
12-“Hunt not the children of the woods; in vain
Thou’lt try one day to wash thy bloody hand:
Nor hunter here nor hunted long remain.”
13-“If miracles were wrought in ancient years,
Why not to-day, O Heaven-cradled seers?
The highway’s strewn with dead, the lepers weep,
If ye but knew,—if ye but saw their tears!”
14-“Now, at this end of Adam’s line I stand
Holding my father’s life-curse in my hand,
Doing no one the wrong that he did me:—
Ah, would that he were barren as the sand!
CVI
Ay, thus thy children, though they sovereigns be,
When truth upon them dawns, will turn on thee,
Who cast them into life’s dark labyrinth
Where even old Izrail can not see.”
15-“Whence come, O firmament, thy myriad lights?
Whence comes thy sap, O vineyard of the heights?
Whence comes the perfume of the rose, and whence
The spirit-larva which the body blights?”
16-“The Sultan, too, relinquishing his throne
Must wayfare through the darkening dust alone
Where neither crown nor kingdom be, and he,
Part of the Secret, here and there is blown.”
17-“But I, the thrice-imprisoned, try to troll
Strains of the song of night, which fill with dole
My blindness, my confinement, and my flesh—
The sordid habitation of my soul.”
Why not to-day, O Heaven-cradled seers?
The highway’s strewn with dead, the lepers weep,
If ye but knew,—if ye but saw their tears!”
-Abu al-Ala al-Maarri
I can read Arabic and Persian but I cannot say I am fluid in either. There are certain words here and there that I can catch: when I tell you this is some fantastic poetry I do not say that lightly. English poetry, as I have already expressed, is generally terrible because the language is not poetic. But Arabic, Persian? These languages are the backbone of the global poetic effort. This poetry is so fantastic, that it somewhat survived the English translation. Just from the Arabic and Persian I know, I have a blueprint of what it might sound like in and I am so jealous of the people that get to read this and comprehend it fully. Highly recommend it, and a very short read.
Favourite rubaiyat:
1-"Or sleep—and shall it be eternal sleep
Somewhither in the bosom of the deep
Infinities of cosmic dust, or here
Where gracile cypresses the vigil keep!”
2-“Methinks Allah divides me to complete
His problem, which with Xs is replete;
For I am free and I am too in chains
Groping along the labyrinthine street”
3-“And round the Well how oft my Soul doth grope
Athirst; but lo! my Bucket hath no Rope:
I cry for water, and the deep, dark Well
Echoes my wailing cry, but not my hope.”
4-“The I in me standing upon the brink
Would leap into the Well to get a drink;
But how to rise once in the depth, I cry,
And cowardly behind my logic slink.”
5-“Apply thy wit, O Brother, here and there
Upon this and upon that; but beware
Lest in the end—ah, better at the start
Go to the Tinker for a slight repair”
6-“Another said: “The creeping worm hath shown,
In her discourse on human flesh and bone,
That Man was once the bed on which she slept—
The walking dust was once a thing of stone.”
7-“The wine’s forbidden,” say these honest folk,
But for themselves the law they will revoke;
The snivelling sheikh says he’s without a garb,
When in the tap-house he had pawned his cloak.”
8-“Carouse, ye sovereign lords! The wheel will roll
Forever to confound and to console:
Who sips to-day the golden cup will drink
Mayhap to-morrow in a wooden bowl—”
9-“The thunder hath a grandeur, but the rains,
Without the thunder, quench the thirst of Earth”
10-“Allah, my sleep is woven through, it seems,
With burning threads of night and golden beams;
But when my dreams are evil they come true;
When they are not, they are, alas! but dreams”
11-“The subtle ways of Destiny I know;
In me she plays her game of “Give and Go.”
Misfortune I receive in cash, but joy,
In drafts on Heaven or on the winds that blow.”
12-“Hunt not the children of the woods; in vain
Thou’lt try one day to wash thy bloody hand:
Nor hunter here nor hunted long remain.”
13-“If miracles were wrought in ancient years,
Why not to-day, O Heaven-cradled seers?
The highway’s strewn with dead, the lepers weep,
If ye but knew,—if ye but saw their tears!”
14-“Now, at this end of Adam’s line I stand
Holding my father’s life-curse in my hand,
Doing no one the wrong that he did me:—
Ah, would that he were barren as the sand!
CVI
Ay, thus thy children, though they sovereigns be,
When truth upon them dawns, will turn on thee,
Who cast them into life’s dark labyrinth
Where even old Izrail can not see.”
15-“Whence come, O firmament, thy myriad lights?
Whence comes thy sap, O vineyard of the heights?
Whence comes the perfume of the rose, and whence
The spirit-larva which the body blights?”
16-“The Sultan, too, relinquishing his throne
Must wayfare through the darkening dust alone
Where neither crown nor kingdom be, and he,
Part of the Secret, here and there is blown.”
17-“But I, the thrice-imprisoned, try to troll
Strains of the song of night, which fill with dole
My blindness, my confinement, and my flesh—
The sordid habitation of my soul.”
July 3, 2024
While I'm quite interested in al-Ma'arri the poet, I find that Rihani's translation is quite poor, and pales in comparison to the other, far more renowned poet of the Islamic golden age: Fitzgerald's Khayyam, that fantastic invention which forgives all Orientalism. This is so, despite the claim that Rihani makes: that Khayyam himself was largely inspired by al-Ma'arri, who at least in my reading, appears as a pessimistic Khayyam, who instead of glorifying wine, glorifies only the reason that cuts across blind faith. I would have totally appreciated (and hope to one day read) a better translation of the Luzumiyat with far greater amount of the original extracted, and only this will let me form a correct appreciation of the work of al-Ma'arri, who as one of the early pessimists in a culture that seems to reject pessimism in its religion and culture, appeals to me quite a lot.
September 26, 2025
9/10.
Extremely suprised at how well al-Ma'arri was able to present his very "unnatural" ideas in such a relatable manner.
The issue was the translation. Very skilled, but there was a constant feeling of veiling the true force of the poetry.
Extremely suprised at how well al-Ma'arri was able to present his very "unnatural" ideas in such a relatable manner.
The issue was the translation. Very skilled, but there was a constant feeling of veiling the true force of the poetry.
May 12, 2023
"'What is thy faith and creed,' they ask of me, 'And who art thou? Unseal thy pedigree.'— I am the child of Time, my tribe, mankind, And now this world’s my caravanseri."
And so Abu'l-Ala is a bit of Thomas Paine and Voltaire combined but in Syria in the year 1000.
Doubt is freedom and dogmatism is suspect. Creeds are offensively inflexible and Abu'l-Ala holds "reason" above the confusion.
And so Abu'l-Ala is a bit of Thomas Paine and Voltaire combined but in Syria in the year 1000.
Doubt is freedom and dogmatism is suspect. Creeds are offensively inflexible and Abu'l-Ala holds "reason" above the confusion.
December 11, 2023
Abu’l-Ala Al-Maari wrote this poem during the Dark Ages: “Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up, And do not desire as good the flesh of slaughtered animals, or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught for their young, not noble ladies.” Quite a vegan way of putting it. This poem is mentioned in the blurb of this book, and made me want to read it. However it’s actually not in this book, which I found a bit odd, but it’s still an interesting read. The poems are quite structured, always four lines, and the language is sometimes a bit stiff. This may be due the age of the translation, but as I can’t read the original Persian I can’t say for sure. It’s interesting though. The things the poet is dealing with: religion, politics, power, and life in general, sometimes feels quite familiar to someone living centuries later. So I found it interesting, but it’s probably not going to become one of my favorite poetry collection any time soon.
May 1, 2025
I’m grateful to have read this book. A great poet from the Islamic realm, though I’m not sure if he was a Muslim himself because of his literature. The author took skeptical stances, nonetheless, a great poet who was a learned man clearly. It’s nice to finally read his works, his fame proceeded him.
November 21, 2023
You shall not kill
Thy life with guiltless life-blood do not stain— Hunt not the children of the woods; in vain
Thou’lt try one day to wash thy bloody hand:
Nor hunter here nor hunted long remain.
Although we shall all return to clay, we must respect basic criteria.
Thy life with guiltless life-blood do not stain— Hunt not the children of the woods; in vain
Thou’lt try one day to wash thy bloody hand:
Nor hunter here nor hunted long remain.
Although we shall all return to clay, we must respect basic criteria.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews