The Remarkable Poetry of Abu Ala Al Ma’arri: The Classic Arab Poet and Freethinker from the Eleventh Century

In February 2013, the Islamist militants in Syria destroyed the statue of the eleventh-century classic Arabic poet Abu Ala Al Ma’arri. The bronze statue that stood in the heart of Al Maarri’s birthplace town Maarat-ul-Numan was not just a statue, it was the last standing symbol of freethought and philosophical inquisition of Muslim heritage.

Al Ma’arri simply known as the ‘blind poet’ was a controversial rationalist who believed that reason was the chief source of truth and divinity. He was one of the three main heretics of Islam along with Ibn Al-Rawandi and al-Tawhīdī who lived during his time. While the works of Al-Rawandi and al-Tawhīdī have been destroyed or lost, Al Maarri’s works survive because his poetry even though controversial was literary in nature which earned him respect even among some of the orthodox Muslims of his time.

Al Ma’arri was known as the ‘poet of philosophers and philosophers of poet’ because his poetry dealt with complex philosophical questions about God, religion, meaning, and death. His masterpiece the Resalat Al-Ghufran (The Epistle of Forgiveness) which deals with the experiences of godless poets in heaven and hell had been compared to Dante’s Divine Comedy, and his work Al-Fuṣūl wa al-ghāyāt was considered to be a parody of the Quran.

Among all things though Al Ma’arri was a sad poet. He described himself as a ‘double prisoner’ because of his blindness and isolation. He was a staunch nihilist who believed that life was inherently meaningless, and that universe does not give two cents about what we do and believe during our time on earth. But contrary to expectations, Al Ma’arri was not a hedonist, instead, he was a passionate moralist. He was a vegan who argued against the consumption of animal products, he was also a pacifist who believed that nothing good ever comes out of war and hatred for other human beings.

According to Al Ma’arri, all religions whether it’s Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism are based on dogma and fear, caring too much about rituals and traditions rather than the essence of humankind.

“They all err — Moslems, Jews,

Christians, and Zoroastrians:

Humanity follows two world-wide sects:

One, man intelligent without religion,

The second, religious without intellect.”

He was against long-held traditions of his time. He looked down upon the practice of month-long fasting and hajj which he believed to be ‘pagan practices’ that existed in Arabia long before Islam even came.

“Traditions come from the past, of high import if they be True;

Ay, but weak is the chain of those who warrant their truth.

Consult thy reason and let perdition take others all:

Of all the conference Reason best will counsel and guide.

A little doubt is better than total credulity”

He had doubts about prophethood just like his predecessor philosopher Zakariya al-Razi from the 8th century who wrote two books on the issue called, Prophet’s Fraudulent Tricks, and The Stratagems of Those Who Claim to Be Prophets.

“The Prophets, too, among us come to teach,

Are one with those who from the pulpit preach;

They pray, and slay, and pass away, and yet

Our ills are as the pebbles on the beach.”

Before religion was called an ‘opium of masses’ by Marx in nineteenth century, Al Ma’arri in his poetry had called religion a ‘noxious weed’.

“Among the crumbling ruins of the creeds

The Scout upon his camel played his reeds

And called out to his people — “Let us hence!

The pasture here is full of noxious weeds.”

Most importantly though, Al Maarri’s poetry speak of a deeply felt pessimism because of all the needless suffering and torture that exists on earth.

“The earth’s surface is but bodies of the dead,

Walk slowly in the air, so you do not trample on the remains of God’s servants.”

“We laugh, but inept is our laughter,

We should weep, and weep sore,

Who are shattered like glass and thereafter

Remoulded no more.”

Speaking of needless suffering and torture, Al Ma’arri was against war and hatred towards others as well as against harming animals. He strongly believed in the sanctity of life which he practiced and upheld throughout his life.

You’ve had your way a long, long time,

You kings and tyrants,

And still you work injustice hour by hour.

What ails you that do not tread a path of glory?

A man may take the field, although he love the bower.

But some hope a divine leader with prophetic voice

Will rise amid the gazing silent ranks.

An idle thought! There’s none to lead but reason,

To point the morning and the evening ways.

About veganism, Al Ma’arri wrote:

You are diseased in understanding and religion.

Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.

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!

This is just a tiny selection from many of his writings in which Al Ma’arri is unapologetically and consistently critical of religious teachings and institutions. It’s been a thousand years since Al Ma’arri died, but he continues to anger fundamentalists and moderate Muslims alike till the present day. Many of the issues that Al Ma’arri raises about dogma, superstition and abuse of clerical power are as valid today as it were a thousand years ago, which makes you wonder if Al Ma’arri will be turning in his grave right now lamenting the fact that things have remained unchanged in the Muslim world since he died.

Perhaps no one can know Al Ma’arri more deeply than the atheist blogger Waleed-Al Husseni spending his time in Palestinian prison, waiting for his trail, and contemplating his death after the charges of blasphemy on him, he remembers in the feeling of utter hopelessness, scribbling the wall of his prison cell with Al Ma’arri beautiful verse, ‘Even though I come late into this world, I must achieve what my predecessors have tried and failed to do, for unparalleled glory to be mine.’