The Epistle of Forgiveness. Abu l-'Ala al-Ma'arri
من تحت العَذِب، أي الطُّحْلُب.
People like this—God curse them!—use various methods to enslave the common people. When they are eager to claim divinity they are not ashamed to make a proclamation and they balk at no abomination; but when they know somebody has discernment they show him that the good is their preferment. There was a man in Yemen who had secluded himself in a castle he owned. His only contact with other people was a black servant, whom he called Jibrīl.203 One day the servant killed him and ran off. Some irreverent jester quipped:
Blessed be God on high!
Jabraʾīl has fled from his depravity,
And he that you maintained was Lord
lies murdered on his throne.
It is said that the depravity his master would impose on him moved him to commit this deed.
When one of this lot is ambitious he is not content with being an imam or even a prophet but mounts higher still in his lies. His drink will be foul water from under the scum (i.e., the pondweed).
27.5.3
ولم تكن العرب في الجاهلية تُقْدِم على هذه العظائم، والأمورِ غيرِ النظائم. بل كانت عقولهم تجنَح إلى رأي الحكماء، وما سلف من كتب القدماء. إذ كان أكثر الفلاسفة لا يقولون بنبيّ، وينظرون إلى من زعم ذلك بعين الغبيّ.
وكان ربيعة بن أُميّة بن خَلَفٍ الجُمَحيّ جرى له مع أبي بكر الصدّيق، رحمة الله عليه، خَطْب، فلحِق بالروم، ويُروى أنه قال:
| لحِقتُ بأرض الروم غير مفكّرٍ | بتركِ صلاةٍ من عِشاء ولا ظُهْرِ |
| فلا تتركوني من صَبوحِ مُدامةٍ | فما حرّم الله السُّلاف من الخمرِ |
| إذا أمرتْ تيْمُ بن مُرّةَ فيكُمُ | فلا خيرَ في أرض الحجاز ولا مِصْرِ |
| فإن يَكُ إسلامي هو الحقّ والهُدَى | فإنِّيَ قد خلّيْتُه لأبي بكرِ |
وافتنّ الناسُ في الضلالة حتى استجازوا دعوى الربوبية، فكان ذلك تنطّسًا في الكُفر، وجمعًا للمعْصِيَة في المزاد الوُفْر. وإنما كان أهل الجاهلية يدفعون النبوّة ولا يجاوزون ذلك إلى سِواه.
ولما أجْلى عمرُ بن الخطّاب، رحمة الله عليه، أهلَ الذمّة عن جزيرة العرب، شقّ ذلك على الجالين، فيقال إن رجلًا من يَهودِ خيْبر يُعرف بسُميْر بن أدكن قال في ذلك:
| يصول أبو حَفصٍ علينا بدِرّةٍ | رُويدَكَ إنّ المرءَ يطفو ويرسُبُ |
| كأنك لم تتْبع حَمولةَ ماقطٍ | لتَشبَع إنّ الزاد شيءٌ محبَّبُ |
| فلو كان موسى صادقًا ما ظهرتُمُ | علينا ولكنْ دولةٌ ثُمّ تذهبُ |
| ونحنُ سبقْناكمْ إلى الميْن فاعرفوا | لنا رُتبةَ البادي الذي هو أكذبُ |
| مشيْتمْ على آثارنا في طريقنا | وبُغْيتكم في أن تَسودوا وتُرْهَبوا |
The Arabs, in pre-Islamic times, did not commit such enormities and irregularities. On the contrary, their minds tended toward the opinion of the sages and the books of the ancients from the past. Most philosophers did not believe in a prophet and considered anyone who asserted prophethood to be a fool. There was an incident involving Rabīʿah ibn Umayyah ibn Khalaf al-Jumaḥī and Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may God have mercy on him!),204 whereupon Rabīʿah joined the Byzantines. It is related that he said:
I went to live in the land of the Byzantines, not minding
my giving up the evening or the midday prayer.
But don’t leave me without a morning draught of wine,
for God has not forbidden choicest wine!
If Taym ibn Murrah rules among you,
then there’s no good in the land of the Hijaz or Egypt.
My Islam may have been Truth and Right Guidance,
but I hereby leave it to Abū Bakr!
There are many different ways in which people have gone astray, even to the point of thinking it possible to claim divinity. This was unbelief most thorough and refined, a piling of disobedience into bags of the amplest kind! The people of the time of Ignorance merely rejected prophethood and went no further. When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (God have mercy upon him) expelled the adherents of the protected religions205 from the Arabian Peninsula, the displaced were distressed. It is said that a man of the Jews of Khaybar known as Sumayr ibn Adkan said on this:206
Abū Ḥafṣ attacks us with his leather whip.
Gently does it! A man now surfaces, now sinks.
It seems you never followed a loaded camel of a beating driver207
to get a bellyful. Provision is a much-loved thing!
Had Moses spoken the truth you would not have had the upper hand
against us. But a dynasty may come and go again.
We were liars before you. Know therefore that we have
the honor of being first and thus the worst!
You merely walked in our tracks, on our path;
your wish is to rule and be feared.
27.5.4
وما زال اليمن منذ كان مَعْدِنًا للمتكسبين بالتديّن، والمحتالين على السُّحْت بالتزيّن. وحدّثني مَن سافر إلى تلك الناحية أن به اليوم جماعة كلهم يزعُم أنه القائم المنتظَر، فلا يَعدَم جبايةً من مالٍ، يصِل بها إلى خسيس الآمال.
وحُكي