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

to understand that one man produces a piece of writing which is then completed by another, than that two men collaborate. The people of Baghdad relate that Abū Saʿīd al-Sīrāfī¹⁵² wrote his book known as The Sufficient, or The Sufficiency, as far as the chapter on the diminutive. Then he died and his son Abū Muḥammad completed it after his death. Such a thing is possible, people do not doubt it. A reliable person told me that Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī mentioned that Abū Bakr ibn al-Sarrāj wrote the first half of his The Concise [Book on Syntax] for a cloth merchant, after which he asked Abū ʿAlī to complete it. This part, however, cannot be said to have been “written” by Abū ʿAlī, because the subject matter of The Concise is taken from Ibn al-Sarrāj’s own words in his The Principles [of Syntax] and The Sentences, so it is as if Abū ʿAlī merely copied them and did not produce anything original himself.

      Al-Mutanabbī on Time

      26.7.1

      والذين روَوْا ديوان أبي الطيّب يحكون عنه أنه وُلد سنة ثلاث وثلثمائة. وكان طلوعه إلى الشام سنة إحدى وعشرين، فأقام فيه بُرهة ثم عاد إلى العراق ولم تطُلْ مُدّتُه هنالك. والدليل على صحّة هذا الخبر أن مدائحه في صِباه إنما هي في أهل الشام إلا قوله:

      كُفّي أراني ويْكِ لوْمَكِ ألْوَما

      وأما شكيَّتُه أهلَ الزمان إليه، فإنه سلك في ذلك منهاج المتقدمين، وقد كثر المقال في ذمّ الدهر حتى جاء في الحديث: لا تسُبّوا الدهر فإن الله هو الدهر، وقد عُرف معنى هذا الكلام، وأنّ باطنه ليس كظاهره، إذ كان الأنبياء عليهم السلام لم يذهب أحدٌ إلى أن الدهر هو الخالق ولا المعبود. وقد جاء في الكتاب الكريم: {وَما يُهْلِكُنا إلا ٱلدَّهْرُ} وقول بعض النّاس: الزمان حركة الفَلَك، لفظٌ لا حقيقة له. وفي كتاب سيبويه ما يدلّ على أن الزمان عنده: مُضِيُّ الليل والنهار. وقد تُعُلّق عليه في هذه العبارة.

      وقد حددْتُه حدًّا ما أجدرَه أن يكون قد سبق إليه إلا أني لم أسمعه، وهو أن يقال: الزمان شيء أقلُّ جزءٍ منه يشتمل على جميع المُدْرَكات، وهو في ذلك ضدُّ المكان، لأن أقلَّ جزءٍ منه لا يمكن أن يشتمل على شيء كما تشتمل عليه الظروف، فأما الكون فلا بدّ من تشبُّثه بما قلّ وكثُر.

      Those who transmit the collected verse of Abū l-Ṭayyib relate about him that he was born in the year 303¹⁵³; he went to Syria in the year 321¹⁵⁴ and stayed there for a while. Then he returned to Iraq, but he did not remain there for any length of time. That this report is correct is proved by the fact that his panegyric odes composed during his younger years are all on Syrians, except his poem that begins:¹⁵⁵

      Woman, stop! [My worries] have made your blaming (woe unto you!) look more blameworthy to me.

      With his complaint, to Time, of the people living in it he followed the path of the ancients. So much has been said in condemnation of Time that there is even a hadith: “Do not revile Time, because God is Time.”¹⁵⁶ The meaning of these words is well known, but the hidden sense is not like the superficial meaning; for none of the prophets (peace be upon them) held the view that Time is the Creator or is to be worshipped. In the Noble Book it says:¹⁵⁷ «Nothing but Time destroys us». What some people say, that time is the movement of the celestial sphere,¹⁵⁸ holds no truth. In Sībawayh’s book there is an indication that in his view time is the passing of night and day, an expression that has been glossed by commentators. I¹⁵⁹ have given a definition that very likely has been given before, but I have not heard it: namely, that “time” is something the smallest part of which contains all things that can be comprehended. In this respect it is the opposite of “space,” because the smallest part of it cannot contain a thing in the manner that circumstances can contain it. As for “being,” it is necessarily attached to what is little or large in quantity.

      26.7.2

      والذين قالوا: وما يُهلكنا إلا الدهرُ وغير ذلك من المقال، مثل البيت المنسوب إلى الأخطل، وذكره حبيب بن أوسٍ لشَمْعَلة التغْلبي، وهو:

فإنّ أمير المؤمنين وفِعله

لكالدهر لا عارٌ بما فعل الدهرُ

      وقول الآخر:

الدهر لاءمَ بين أُلفتنا

وكذاك فرّق بيننا الدهرُ

      وقول أبي صَخْر:

عجِبتُ لسعْي الدهر بيني وبينها

فلمّا انقضى ما بيننا سكن الدهرُ

      لم يُدّعَ أن أحدًا منهم كان يقرّب للأفلاك القرابين، ولا يزعم أنها تعقِل، وإنما ذلك شيء يتوارثه الأُمم في زمان بعد زمان.

      وكان في عبد القيس شاعر يقال له شاتم الدهر، وهو القائل:

ولما رأيتُ الدهر وعْرًا سبيلُه	وأبدى لنا وجهًا أزبَّ مجدَّعا
وجَبهةَ قِرْدٍ كالشِّراك ضئيلةً	وأَنفًا ولَوّى بالعثانينِ أخدعا
ذكرتُ الكرامَ الذاهبين أُولي النَّدى	وقلتُ لعمرو والحُسام ألا دَعا

      As for those who said «Nothing but Time destroys us» and similar things, such as the verse attributed to al-Akhṭal (Ḥabīb ibn Aws quotes it as if by Shamʿalah al-Taghlibī):¹⁶⁰

      The Commander of the Believers and his deeds

      are like Time—there is no shame in what Time does.

      or the verse by another:¹⁶¹

      Time brought