Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri is somebody whom I only learned of recently, but has definitely become one of my greatest heroes.
According to his Wikipedia article:
"[He] was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. He was a controversial rationalist of his time, attacking the dogmas of religion and rejecting the claim that Islam or any other religion possessed the truths they claimed and considered the speech of prophets as a lie (literally, 'forgery') and 'impossible' to be true. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. According to the poet Sa'di of Shiraz, he was a strict Vegetarian who argued for animal rights."
"He rejected claims of any divine revelation. His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward."
"Al-Maarri's fundamental pessimism is expressed in his anti-natalist recommendation that no children should be begotten, so as to spare them the pains of life."
Skeptic, vegetarian, and anti-natalist (or non-reproductionist, as I call it)...he might have had an outlook closer to mine than any other man I have ever known to exist.
He was even pessimistic. And honestly, why not be. Indeed, "In 2013, almost a thousand years after his death, the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda, beheaded the statue of Al Maʿarri during the conflict in Syria."
(Via , and before that, )
According to his Wikipedia article:
"[He] was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. He was a controversial rationalist of his time, attacking the dogmas of religion and rejecting the claim that Islam or any other religion possessed the truths they claimed and considered the speech of prophets as a lie (literally, 'forgery') and 'impossible' to be true. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. According to the poet Sa'di of Shiraz, he was a strict Vegetarian who argued for animal rights."
"He rejected claims of any divine revelation. His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward."
"Al-Maarri's fundamental pessimism is expressed in his anti-natalist recommendation that no children should be begotten, so as to spare them the pains of life."
Skeptic, vegetarian, and anti-natalist (or non-reproductionist, as I call it)...he might have had an outlook closer to mine than any other man I have ever known to exist.
He was even pessimistic. And honestly, why not be. Indeed, "In 2013, almost a thousand years after his death, the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda, beheaded the statue of Al Maʿarri during the conflict in Syria."
(Via , and before that, )
Comments
Post a Comment