The Epistle of Forgiveness. Abu l-'Ala al-Ma'arri

met personally—may God have mercy upon them all, and may He make the Sheikh the inheritor of their longest, most flourishing, and most prosperous lifetime!—but there is no need for this: the flowers have blossomed, the light is bright, and dawn is shining for those with sight!”

      2.6.1

      كان أبو الفرج الزَهْرَجيّ كاتبُ حضرةِ نصرِ الدولة – أدام الله حراستَه – كتب رسالةً إليّ أعطانيها، ورسالةً إليه – أدام الله تأييده – استَوْدَعَنيها، وسألني إيصالها إلى جليلِ حضرته، وأكون نافِثَها لا باعِثَها، ومُعَجّلَها لا مُؤَجِّلَها. فسرق عديلي رحلاً لي، الرسالةُ فيه، فكتبتُ هذه الرسالةَ أشكو أُموري وأبثُّ شُقُوري، وأُطلِعُه طِلعَ عُجَري وبُجَرِي، وما لقيتُ في سفري من أُقَيوام يدّعون العلم والأدب، والأدبُ أدبُ النفس لا أدبُ الدرس، وهم أصفارٌ منها جميعًا، ولهم تصحيفاتٌ كنت إذا ردَدتُها عليهم، نَسَبوا التصحيف إليَّ، وصاروا إلبًا عليَّ.

      Abū l-Faraj al-Zahrajī, state secretary at the court of Naṣr al-Dawlah—may God always protect him!—wrote a letter to me, which he gave me, and another letter to the Sheikh—may God always support him!—which he entrusted to me, asking me to deliver it to the venerable Sheikh, as speech, rather than as a dispatch, and quickly convey it and not to delay it. But my traveling companion robbed me of one of my saddlebags, which had the letter in it, so I wrote this letter instead, complaining of my state of affairs and explaining my needs, to inform the Sheikh of all my foibles and failings and of my experiences, during my travels, with all the petty people who pretend to have knowledge and erudition. True erudition is that of the soul, not that of study; but they are devoid of both. They commit errors when they read and write17 but when I point them out, they gang up against me and impute the errors to me!

      Criticism of Heresy and Heretics

      2.6.2

      لقيتُ أبا الفرج الزهرجيّ بآمدَ ومعه خِزانة كتُبِه، فعرضها عليّ فقلتُ: كتبك هذه يهوديّةٌ، قد برئت من الشريعة الحنيفيّة، فأظهر من ذلك إعظاماً وإنكارًا، فقلت له: أنت على المُجَرَّب، ومثلي لا يَهْرِف بما لا يعرِف، وابلُغْ تَيْقَنْ. فقرأَ هو وولدُه وقال: صغَّرَ الخُبرُ الخَبَر. وكتب إليّ رسالةً يُقَرِّظُني فيها بطبعٍ له كريم وخُلُقٍ غير ذميم.

      I met Abū l-Faraj al-Zahrajī in Āmid. He had a library that he showed me. I told him, “These books of yours are Jewish and devoid of the Shariah of the True Religion!” He showed his annoyance and disapproval of this remark. So I said to him, “You are talking to an experienced man; someone like me does not talk rubbish about things he does not know about. Verify and you will be certain!” He and his son began to read, and he said, “First-hand knowledge has belittled reported knowledge!” He wrote me a letter, eulogizing me, for such is his good nature and unblemished character.18

      2.7.1

      قال المتنبّي:

      أذمُّ إلى هذا الزمان أُهَيلَهُ

      صغَّرَهم تصغيرَ تحقيرٍ غير تكبير، وتقليل غير تكثير، فنَفَثَ مصدورًا، وأظهر ضميراً مستورًا. وهو سائغ في مجاز الشعر، وقائله غير ممنوعٍ من النَظْم والنثر ولكنه وضعَه غير موضعِه، وخاطَب به غير مستَحِقِّه. وما يستَحِقّ زمانٌ ساعدَه بلقاءِ سيف الدولة أن يُطلِق على أهلِه الذمَّ. وكيف وهو القائل:

أَسيرُ إلى إقطاعِه في ثيابِه

على طِرْفِه من دارِه بحُسامِهِ

      وقد كان من حقّه أن يجعلهم في خِفارته، إذ كانوا منسوبين إليه محسوبين عليه. ولا يجب أن يشكو عاقلاً ناطقًا إلى غير عاقلٍ ولا ناطقٍ، إذ الزمان حركاتُ الفلك إلا أن يكون مِمَن يعتقد أن الأفلاك تَعقِل وتعلَم وتفهم، وتدري بمواقع أفعالها، بقصود وإرادات، ويَحمله هذا الاعتقادُ على أن يُقرِّب لها القرابين ويُدَخِّنَ الدُخْن، فيكون مناقضًا لقوله

فتَبًّا لدين عبيدِ النجومِ

ومَن يَدّعِي أنها تعقِلُ

      أو يكونَ كما قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم: مُذَبْذَبِينَ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ لا إِلَى هَؤُلاءِ وَلا إِلَى هؤُلاءِ ويوشك أن تكون هذه صفته.

      Al-Mutanabbī19 says:

      I blame the manikins of these our times.

      using the diminutive (“manikin” of “man”), out of deprecation and not veneration, and by making them few and not many; thus spitting out his words like someone with a disease of the chest,20 by which his hidden mind was expressed. This is possible in the figurative language of poetry, and one is not forbidden to say such things in verse or prose, but he said it inappropriately and addressed it to people who did not deserve it. A time in which he has had the good fortune to meet Sayf al-Dawlah does not deserve to have its people blamed. How could it, when he himself said,

      I go to his fief in his clothes

      on his steed from his house with his sword.

      He should have considered that these people are under Sayf al-Dawlah’s protection; they were affiliated to him and his protégés. And one should not complain to a reasonless, dumb object about persons possessing reason and speech: for “time” is no more than the movements of the celestial sphere—unless he is one of those who believe that these spheres possess reason and have knowledge and understanding, aware of the effect of their actions, with intentions and volitions, and who by their belief are induced to bring sacrifices and burnt offerings to them. In that case he would contradict his own words:

      Perish the religion of the worshippers of stars

      and those who claim that these have reason.

      Or he would be as God the Exalted says in His noble Book:21 «Wavering between this, not to these, not to those»; he all but answers to this description.

      2.7.2