Al - MaŽarri
Al-Ma'arri (973-1057), whose full name was Abu 'L'Ala Ahmad ibn 'Abdallah al-Ma'arri, was born in Ma'arra, south of Aleppo. He  achieved fame as one of greatest of Arab poets. Al-Ma'arri was stricken with smallpox when four and became blind.  As he grew older, he was able to travel to Aleppo, Antioch and other Syrian cities, learning by heart the manuscripts preserved there. Al-Ma'arri spent 18 months at Baghdad, then the center of learning and poetry, leaving to return to his native town. There he created the Luzumiyyat, a large collection of verses that contrasts from traditional works by its irregular structure and in the opinions it contains.  His presence in Ma'arra drew many people, who came to hear him lecture on poetry and rhetoric.
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The Body is Your Vase

 

      The body, which gives you during life a form,

Is but your vase: be not deceived, my soul!

Cheap is the bowl for storing honey in,

But precious for the contents of the bowl.

Falsehood is Perpetual Loss

 

      Reason forbade me many things which,

Instinctively, my nature was attracted to;

And a perpetual loss I feel if, knowing,

I believe a falsehood or deny the truth.

Leaders Wrong Their Subjects

 

      My stay in the world is wearisome:

How long shall I associate with a people

Whose leaders command what is not good for it?

They wronged their subjects, allowed themselves

To deceive them and neglect their interests,

Although they are their hirelings.

The Two Universal Sects

 

      They all err—Moslems, Jews,

Christians, and Zoroastrians:

Humanity follows two world-wide sects:

One, man intelligent without religion,

The second, religious without intellect.

The Cheat of Sacred Rites

 

      O fools, awake! The rites you sacred hold

Are but a cheat contrived by men of old,

Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust

And died in baseness—and their law is dust.

Creeds as Fairy Tales

So, too, the creeds of man: the one prevails

Until the other comes; and this one fails

When that one triumphs; ay, the lonesome world

Will always want the latest fairy tales.

A Little Doubt is Better

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:

A Spoken Lie Enforced by Blood  

                               

               

      Had they been left alone with reason,

they would not have accepted a spoken lie;

but the whips were raised to strike them.

Traditions were brought to them,

and they were ordered to say,

"We have been told the truth";

If they refused, the sword was drenched with their blood.

They were terrified by scabbards of calamities,

and tempted by great bowls of food,

Offered in a lofty and condescending manner.