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

but it perished with the Zanj,49 for the Alid pretender of Basra killed twenty-four thousand people there at a place called al-ʿAqīq; they counted them by tallying with reeds. He set fire to its great mosque. He addressed the Zanj in a sermon: “You have been helped by your ugly physique; to follow it up, an ugly reputation you must seek! To every habitation bring doom; turn every room into a tomb!” Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Yazīdī al-Warzanīnī50 said to me in Damascus, “He attached himself to my ancestor’s family and claimed to be related to him.”51

      3.6.2

      وقال أبو عبد الله بن محمد بن عليّ بن رِزام الطائيّ الكوفيّ: كنتُ بمكّة وسيف الجَنّابيّ قد أخذ الحاجَّ، ورأيت رجلاً منهم قد قتل جماعةً وهو يقول: يا كلاب، أَليس قال لكم محمد المكّيّ: وَمَنْ دَخَلَهُ كانَ آمِنًا، أيُّ أمنٍ هنا؟ فقلت له: يا فتى العرب تؤمّنني سيفَك أفسّر لك هذا؟ قال: نعم. قلت: فيها خمسة أجْوبة، الأول: ومَن دخله كان آمناً من عذابي يوم القيامة، والثاني: مِن فَرْضي الذي فرضْتُ عليه، والثالث: خرج مَخرج الخبر وهو يريد الأمر كقوله: وَالْمُطَلَّقَاتُ يَتَرَبَّصْنَ بِأَنْفُسِهِنَّ، والرابع: لا يقام عليه الحدّ فيه إذا جني في الحِلّ، والخامس: مَنَّ الله عليهم بقوله: أَنَّا جَعَلْنَا حَرَمًا آمِنًا وَيُتَخَطَّفُ النَّاسُ مِنْ حَوْلِهِمْ فقال: صدقتَ، هذه اللحية إلى توبة؟ فقلت: نعم فخلاني وذهب.

      Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Rizām al-Ṭāʾī al-Kūfī reports: “I was in Mecca at the time when the sword of al-Jannābī had wrought havoc among the pilgrims. I saw one of them who had killed a number of people, saying, ‘You dogs! Has Muḥammad, the man from Mecca, not told you that «Whoever enters it will be safe»?52 But what safety is there here then?’ I replied, ‘Arab warrior, if you guarantee that I will be safe from your sword, I shall explain this to you.’ ‘Very well,’ he said. I continued, ‘There are five answers. First, it means: whoever enters it will be safe from My torment at the Resurrection. Secondly: safe from the religious duty that I have imposed on him.53 Thirdly: it is expressed as a statement but a command is intended, as in God’s words:54 «and divorced women will wait by themselves». Fourthly: The prescribed punishment shall not be applied when someone commits a crime in a non-sacred territory.55 And fifthly: God has granted it to them with His words:56 «We have made a secure sanctuary, though around them people are being snatched away».’ The man answered, ‘You are right! Will this beard of mine57 be forgiven?’ I said, ‘Yes!’ Then he let me go and off he went.”

      3.7.1

      والحسين بن منصور الحلاج من نيسابور وقيل: من مَرْو، يَدَّعي كل علم، وكان متهوّرًا جَسورًا يروم إقلاب الدوَل ويدَّعي فيه أصحابُه الإلهية، ويقول بالحلول، ويُظهِر مذاهب الشيعة للملوك، ومذاهب الصوفيّة للعامّة، وفي تضاعيف ذلك يَدَّعي أن الإلهية قد حلَّت فيه. وناظَره عليّ بن عيسى الوزير فوجده صِفرًا من العلوم وقال: تَعَلُّمُك لطهورك وفَرْضِك أجدى عليك من رسائل أنت لا تدري ما تقول فيها، كم تكتب إلى الناس: تبارك ذو النور الشَعْشَعاني الذي يلمع بعد شَعْشعته! ما أحْوجك إلى أدب!

      حدّثني أبو علي الفارسيّ قال: رأيت الحلاج واقفًا على حلقة أبي بكر الشِبْليّ. . .^١ أنت بالله ستفسد خشيته.^٢ فنفض كُمَّه في وجهه وأنشد:

يا سِرَّ سِرٍّ يَدِقُّ حتى	يَجِلَّ عن وصْفِ كلِّ حَيّ
وظاهرًا باطنًا تَبَدَّى	من كلِّ شيءٍ لكلِّ شيّ
يا جُملَةَ الكُلِّ لسْتَ غيري	فما اعتذاري إذًا إليّ

      وهو يعتقد أن العارف من الله بمنزلة شُعاعِ^٣ الشمس، منها بدأ وإليها يعود، ومنها يستمدّ ضَوءَه.

      ١ النص ناقص على ما يظهر.

      ٢ في نسحة : (ستفسد خشبته)، وفي نسختين: (ستفسد خشبة)؛ وفي العبارة غموض.

      ٣ كلمة (الشعاع) مأخوذة من هامش نسخة الأصل.

      Al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj from Nīsābūr—some say from Marw—claimed to possess all knowledge. He was a reckless, insolent man who wanted to overturn dynasties. His followers claimed that he was divine; he preached the doctrine of divine indwelling. To rulers he made an outward show of the teachings of Shi’ism, to the masses he made a show of the ways of the Sufis, and implicitly in all this he claimed that divinity dwelled in him. The vizier ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā questioned him in a dispute and found him to be devoid of any knowledge. He said to him, “You would have derived more profit from learning about your ritual purity and your religious duties than writing treatises where you do not understand what you say in them. How often have you not written to the people: ‘Blessed be He with the glittering light that still gleams after its glittering!’58 You are so much in need of education!”

      Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī told me: “I saw al-Ḥallāj when he was standing in the circle of Abū Bakr al-Shiblī. [. . .]59 ‘You, by God, will one day corrupt the fear of Him!’60 Al-Ḥallāj shook his sleeve in his face and recited:

      O secret secret, subtle to the point of being

      exalted beyond description by any living being;

      Outwardly, inwardly, you manifest yourself

      in every thing to every thing.

      O whole of All, you are not other than I,

      so why excuse myself then to myself?”

      He believed that someone with mystic knowledge stands in relation to God as rays are to the sun: from it they appear, to it they return,61 and from it they derive their light.

      3.7.2

      أنشدني الظاهر لنفسه:

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