al-Ma'arri Quotes

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

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."

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.

The holy fights by Moslem heroes fought,
The saintly works by Christian hermits wrought
And those of Jewry or of Sabian creed—
Their valour reaches not the Indian's deed
Whom zeal and awe religiously inspire To cast his body on the flaming pyre.

اِثْنَانِ أَهْلُ الْأَرْضِ ذُو عَقْلٍ بِلَا دِينٍ وَآخَرُ دَيِّنٌ لَا عَقْلَ لَهُ

We laugh, but inept is our laughter;
We should weep and weep sore,
Who are shattered like glass, and thereafter
Re-moulded no more!

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

ولو أنّي حُبِيتُ الخُلْدَ فَرْداً لمَا أحبَبْتُ بالخُلْدِ انفِرادا
فلا هَطَلَتْ عَلَيّ ولا بأرْضي سَحائبُ ليسَ تنْتَظِمُ البِلادا

They know me well.
How could they conceal a resplendent sun?

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!

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.

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.

And I, albeit I come in Time's late hour,
Achieve what lay not in the ancients' power.

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.

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.