Top 15 al-Ma'arri Quotes

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!

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."

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.