Abu al-'Ala' al-Ma'arri أبو العلاء المعري
al-Ma'arri by Kahlil Gibran
Born	December 973 Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo
Died	May 1057 (aged 83) Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Mirdasid Emirate of Aleppo
Other names	Abulola Moarrensis Abulola
Philosophical work
Era	Post-classical era Islamic Golden Age
Region	Middle Eastern philosophy Arabic philosophy
School	Deism Pessimism Rationalism
Main interests	Poetry, skepticism ethics antinatalism
Notable ideas	Veganism

Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri (Arabic: أبو العلاء المعري;^[a] December 973 – May 1057),^[1] also known by his Latin name Abulola Moarrensis,^[2] was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer from Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Emirate of Aleppo (in present day Syria).^[3] Because of his antireligious worldview, he is known as one of the "foremost atheists" of his time", although his worldview was closer to deism.^[b][3][4] However, in his defensive treatise Zajr al-Nabeh (The Repelling of the Barker)—a manuscript edited and published in 1965—al-Ma'arri explicitly identified himself as a faithful Muslim and systematically refuted the accusations of heresy leveled against him by his contemporaries. In the text, he seeks refuge in God from claims that his poetry is proof of atheism.^[5] Furthermore, he clarifies his verses to strictly affirm his orthodox belief in the Day of Judgment and the afterlife.^[6] Rather than rejecting the religion itself, al-Ma'arri directed his criticism toward the religious scholars of his time, mocking their theological ignorance and turning the accusation around by labeling his critics as the actual deviants and atheists.^[7]

Born in the city of al-Ma'arra (present-day Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Syria) during the later Abbasid era, he became blind at a young age from smallpox but nonetheless studied in nearby Aleppo, then in Tripoli and Antioch. Producing popular poems in Baghdad, he refused to sell his texts. In 1010, he returned to Syria after his mother began declining in health, and continued writing, which gained him local respect.

Described as a "pessimistic freethinker", al-Ma'arri was a controversial rationalist of his time,^[3] rejecting superstition and dogmatism. His written works exhibit a fixation on the study of language and its historical development, known as philology.^[1][8] He was pessimistic about life, describing himself as "a double prisoner" of blindness and isolation. He attacked religious dogmas and practices,^[9][10] was equally critical and sarcastic about Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism,^[8][9][10] and became a deist.^[8][10] In response to contemporary accusations of heresy stemming from these poetic critiques, al-Ma'arri authored Zajr al-Nabeh. In this text, he explicitly denied holding atheistic or anti-Islamic beliefs, clarifying that his verses targeted the corruption, hypocrisy, and ignorance of religious figures rather than the core tenets of the faith itself.^[11] He advocated social justice and lived a secluded, ascetic lifestyle.^[1][3] He was a vegan, known in his time as a moral vegetarian, entreating: "Do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals / Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught for their young."^[12] Al-Ma'arri held an antinatalist outlook, in line with his general pessimism, suggesting that children should not be born to spare them of the pains and suffering of life.^[1] Saqt az-Zand, Luzumiyat, and Risalat al-Ghufran are among his main works. Consistent with his pervasive pessimism, al-Ma'arri harbored a deep skepticism regarding gender relations and advocated for the strict seclusion of women. As analyzed by the Egyptian scholar Taha Hussein, al-Ma'arri advised against teaching women to read or write to shelter them from societal corruption, and controversially argued that the Hajj pilgrimage should not be obligatory for them.^[13]

Abu al-'Ala' was born in December 973 in al-Ma'arra (present-day Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Syria), southwest of Aleppo, whence his nisba ("al-Ma'arri"). At his time, the city was part of the Abbasid Caliphate, the third Islamic caliphate, during the Islamic Golden Age.^[14] He was a member of the Banu Sulayman, a notable family of Ma'arra, belonging to the larger Tanukh tribe.^[1][15][16] One of his ancestors was probably the first qadi of Ma'arra. The Tanukh tribe had formed part of the aristocracy in Syria for hundreds of years, and some members of the Banu Sulayman had also been noted as good poets.^[17] He lost his eyesight at the age of four due to smallpox. Later in his life, he regarded himself as "a double prisoner", which referred to both his blindness and the general isolation that he felt during his life.^[3][18]

He began his career as a poet at a young age, around 11 or 12 years old. He was educated at first in Ma'arra and Aleppo, then in Antioch and other Syrian cities. Among his teachers in Aleppo were companions from the circle of Ibn Khalawayh.^[17][18] This grammarian and Islamic scholar had died in 980 CE, when al-Ma'arri was still a child.^[19] Al-Ma'arri nevertheless laments the loss of Ibn Khalawayh in strong terms in a poem of his Risālat al-Ghufrān.^[20] Al-Qifti reports that when on his way to Tripoli, al-Ma'arri visited a Christian monastery near Latakia where he listened to Hellenistic philosophy debates that birthed his secularism, but other historians such as Ibn al-Adim deny that he had been exposed to any theology other than Islamic doctrine.^[20]

In 1004–05, al-Ma'arri learned that his father had died and, in reaction, wrote an elegy where he praised his father.^[20] Years later he would travel to Baghdad where he became well received in the literary salons of the time, though he was a controversial figure.^[20] After the eighteen months in Baghdad, al-Ma'arri returned home for unknown reasons. He may have returned because his mother was ill, or he may have run out of money in Baghdad, as he refused to sell his works.^[1] He returned to his native town of Ma'arra in about 1010 and learned that his mother had died before his arrival.^[14]

He remained in Ma'arra for the rest of his life, where he opted for an ascetic lifestyle, refusing to sell his poems, living in seclusion and observing a strict vegetarian diet, eventually becoming one of the earliest known vegans.^[21][22] His personal confinement to his house was only broken once when violence had struck his town.^[20] In that incident, al-Ma'arri went to Aleppo to intercede with its Mirdasid emir, Salih ibn Mirdas, to release his brother Abu'l-Majd and several other Muslim notables from Ma'arra who were held responsible for destroying a winehouse whose Christian owner was accused of molesting a Muslim woman.^[20] Though he was confined, he lived out his later years continuing his work and collaborating with others.^[23] He enjoyed great respect and attracted many students locally, as well as actively holding correspondence with scholars abroad.^[1] Despite his intentions of living a secluded lifestyle, in his seventies, he became rich and was the most revered person in his area.^[14] Al-Ma'arri never married and died in May 1057 in his hometown.^[1][18]

Poem from Luzūmīyāt, read in Arabic

The restrictive rhyme and meter can be heard in the start of poem 197^[24]

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An early collection of his poems appeared as The Tinder Spark (Saqṭ az-Zand; سقط الزند). The collection of poems included praise of people of Aleppo and the Hamdanid ruler Sa'd al-Dawla. It gained popularity and established his reputation as a poet. A few poems in the collection were about armour.^[1]

A second, more original collection appeared under the title Unnecessary Necessity (Luzūm mā lam yalzam لزوم ما لا يلزم), or simply Necessities (Luzūmīyāt اللزوميات). The title refers to how al-Ma'arri saw the business of living and alludes to the unnecessary complexity of the rhyme scheme used.^[1]

His third work is a work of prose known as The Epistle of Forgiveness (Risalat al-Ghufran رسالة الغفران). The work was written as a direct response to the Arabic poet Ibn al-Qarih, whom al-Ma'arri mocks for his religious views.^[19][25] In this work, the poet visits paradise and meets the Arab poets of the pagan period. This view is shared by Islamic scholars, who often argued that pre-Islamic Arabs are indeed capable of entering paradise.^[26] Because of the aspect of conversing with the deceased in paradise, the Risalat al-Ghufran has been compared to the Divine Comedy of Dante^[27] which came hundreds of years after. The work has also been noted to be similar to Ibn Shuhayd's Risala al-tawabi' wa al-zawabi, though there is no evidence that al-Ma'arri was inspired by Ibn Shuhayd nor is there any evidence that Dante was inspired by al-Ma'arri.^[28] Algeria reportedly banned The Epistle of Forgiveness from the International Book Fair held in Algiers in 2007.^[14][29]

Paragraphs and Periods (al-Fuṣūl wa al-Ghāyāt) is a collection of homilies. The work has been accused of being a parody of or an attempt to imitate the Quran.^[30][31]

Al-Ma'arri also composed a significant corpus of verse riddles.^[32]

• 
  Saqt al-Zand
• 
  Risalat al-Gufran

Al-Ma'arri was a skeptic^[3] who denounced superstition and dogmatism in religion. This, along with his general negative view on life, has made him described as a pessimistic freethinker. Throughout his philosophical works, one of the recurring themes that he expounded upon at length was the idea that reason holds a privileged position over traditions. In his view, relying on the preconceptions and established norms of society can be limiting and prevent individuals from fully exploring their own capabilities.^[18][33] Al-Ma'arri taught that religion was a "fable invented by the ancients", worthless except for those who exploit the credulous masses.^[34]

Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.^[35]

Al-Ma'arri criticized many of the dogmas of Islam, such as the Hajj, which he called "a pagan's journey".^[36] He rejected claims of any divine revelation and his creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward.^[37][38] His secularist views included both Judaism and Christianity as well. Al-Ma'arri remarked that monks in their cloisters or devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born among Magians or Sabians they would have become Magians or Sabians.^[39] Encapsulating his view on organized religion, he once stated: "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains."^[40][41]

Contemporary and historical literary critics point out that Al-Ma'arri's reputation as a heretic stems largely from selective readings of his poetry and the blind imitation of earlier detractors. The medieval historian and Qadi of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (d. 1262), authored an extensive treatise titled Al-Insaf wa al-Tahharri (Equity and Investigation) explicitly defending Al-Ma'arri. Ibn al-Adim concluded that Al-Ma'arri's faith was orthodox and criticized his detractors for failing to verify his actual beliefs before declaring him a heretic.^[42]

The authenticity of Al-Ma'arri's Islamic faith in his later years is critically supported by his final dictated work, Daw' al-Saqt (The Light of the Spark). Originally intended as a linguistic commentary on his early poetry, this late-life manuscript is laden with orthodox Islamic theology, including profound reverence for the Prophet Muhammad, praise for the Prophet's companions, and unambiguous affirmations of the Day of Judgment. The prominent medieval historian Ibn al-Wardi, who had initially classified Al-Ma'arri as a heretic, explicitly retracted his accusations after examining this specific manuscript. In his historical chronicle, Ibn al-Wardi documented his shift in perspective, stating that Daw' al-Saqt definitively "clarified his return to the truth and the soundness of his faith," noting that as it was Al-Ma'arri's final work, "deeds are judged by their endings."^[43]

To address the accusations of heresy directly during his lifetime, Al-Ma'arri authored the apologetic work Zajr al-Nabih (Repelling the Barker) at the urging of his peers.^[44] Amjad al-Trabulsi, who critically edited the manuscript, highlighted a significant historiographical discrepancy: while classical biographers such as Al-Qifti and Al-Dhahabi officially listed Zajr al-Nabih in Al-Ma'arri's bibliography, they conspicuously failed to quote its contents when evaluating his beliefs, relying instead on controversial interpretations of his poetry.^[45] In Zajr al-Nabih, Al-Ma'arri clarified that verses appearing to mock religion were directed at the corruption of religious practitioners or were critiques of other faiths. Regarding the specific claim that he called the Hajj a "pagan's journey," he explained that his poetry was condemning the hypocrisy of certain pilgrims, not the Islamic ritual itself, which he affirmed as a valid hardship for eternal reward.^[46]

This orthodox alignment is further corroborated by Al-Ma'arri's own explicit defense of the Quran. The Egyptian literary historian Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi'i, in his extensive work I'jaz al-Qur'an wa al-Balagha al-Nabawiyya (The Inimitability of the Quran and Prophetic Eloquence), dismissed the assertions of Al-Ma'arri's atheism and the rumors that he attempted to rival the Quran. To dismantle these claims, Al-Rafi'i cited Al-Ma'arri's direct refutation of the notorious heretic Ibn al-Rawandi. In this text, Al-Ma'arri explicitly affirmed the linguistic miracle of the Quran, stating that "atheists and believers alike agree that the book brought by Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him dazzled with its inimitability." Al-Rafi'i concluded his analysis by arguing that it is logically and historically inconceivable for Al-Ma'arri to harbor disbelief while writing such a profound defense of the Quranic revelation.^[47]

Furthermore, a comprehensive reading of his diwan, the Luzumiyat, reveals numerous verses explicitly affirming Islamic monotheism and praising the Prophet Muhammad. The Indian philologist Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani (d. 1978) argued that many of the blatantly heretical verses attributed to Al-Ma'arri were later fabrications by his detractors. Al-Maymani noted that these fabricated poems often contained weak linguistic structures completely inconsistent with Al-Ma'arri's renowned mastery of Arabic. He also documented that strict Maliki scholars from Al-Andalus cited Al-Ma'arri favorably, and recorded testimonies from figures like Al-Silafi acknowledging his piety and repentance from his early skepticism.^[48]

Al-Ma'arri was an ascetic, renouncing worldly desires and living secluded from others while producing his works. He opposed all forms of violence.^[14] In Baghdad, while being well received, he decided not to sell his texts, which made it difficult for him to live.^[1] This ascetic lifestyle has been compared to similar thought in India during his time.^[23]

In al-Ma'arri's later years, he chose to stop consuming meat and all other animal products (i.e., he became a practicing vegan). He wrote:^[49]

Do not unjustly eat what the water has given up, and do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
Or the white (milk) of mothers who intended its pure draught for their young, not for noble ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking their eggs; for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get betimes by their industry from the flowers of fragrant plants;
For they did not store it that it might belong to others, nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
I washed my hands of all this; and would that I had perceived my way ere my temples grew hoar!^[50]

Al-Ma'arri's fundamental pessimism is expressed in his antinatalist recommendation that no children should be begotten, so as to spare them the pains of life.^[51] In an elegy composed by him over the loss of a relative, he combines his grief with observations on the ephemerality of this life:

Soften your tread. Methinks the earth's surface is but bodies of the dead,
Walk slowly in the air, so you do not trample on the remains of God's servants.^[1]

Al-Ma'arri's self-composed epitaph, on his tomb, states (in regard to life and being born): "This is my father's crime against me, which I myself committed against none."^[52]

Al-Ma'arri is controversial even today as he was skeptical of Islam.^[23] In 2013 the al-Nusra Front, a rebel militia and former branch of al-Qaeda, demolished a statue of al-Ma'arri during the Syrian Civil War.^[29] The statue had been crafted in 1944 by the sculptor Fathi Muhammad.^[17] The motive behind the destruction is disputed; theories range from the fact that he was a heretic to the fact that he is believed by some to be related to the Assad family.^[29]

• Risalat al-Ghufran, a Divine Comedy. Translated by G. Brackenbury 1943.
• The Epistle of Forgiveness: Volume One: A Vision of Heaven and Hell. Translated by Geert Jan Van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler. Library of Arabic Literature, New York University Press 2013.
• The Epistle of Forgiveness: Volume Two: Hypocrites, Heretics, and Other Sinners. Translated by Geert Jan Van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler. Library of Arabic Literature, New York University Press 2014.
• Those riddles of al-Maʿarrī that are cited in al-Ḥaẓīrī's twelfth-century Kitāb al-Iʿjāz fī l-aḥājī wa-l-alghāz have been edited as Abū l-ʿAlāˀ al-Maʿarrī, Dīwān al-alġāz, riwāyat Abī l-Maʿālī al-Ḥaẓīrī, ed. by Maḥmūd ʿAbdarraḥīm Ṣāliḥ (Riyadh [1990]).

• Abbasid Caliphate
• Arabic literature
• Islamic Golden Age
• List of vegans
• Veganism

• Beeston, A. F. L. The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge University Press.
• Browne, Edward Granville (1999) [1906]. A Literary History of Persia. Curzon. ISBN 978-0-7007-0406-4.
• Glassé, Cyril (2001). "al-Ma'arrī, Abū-l-'Alā'". The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Introduction by Huston Smith. AltaMira Press. ISBN 9780759101906.
• Grigoryan, Sona (2023). Neither Belief nor Unbelief: Intentional Ambivalence in al-Maʿarrī's Luzūm. De Gruyter.
• Hitti, Philip Khuri (1968). Islam, a Way of Life. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9781452910406.
• Holt, P. M.; Lambton, Ann K. S.; Lewis, Bernard, eds. (1977). "Religion and Culture". The Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29138-5.
• Khalidi, Tarif (1994). Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511583650. ISBN 0-521-46554-0.
• Majid, Anouar (18 September 2007). A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent Is Vital to Islam and America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-5127-6.
• Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne (2006). A Literary History of the Arabs. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4286-3576-0.
• Smoor, P. (1984). "al-Ma'arri". In Gibb, H. A. R. (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 3, Part 1. Brill. pp. 927–935.
• Smoor, Pieter (2006). Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (eds.). Medieval Islamic Civilization. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96691-7.
• Stewart, Devin (2017). "Rhythmical Anxiety: Notes on Abu l-'Ala al-Maarri's (d. 449/1058) al-Fusul wa'l-Ghayat and Its Reception". In Alshaar, Nuha (ed.). The Qur'an and Adab. The shaping of literary traditions in classical Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 239–272.
• Watt, William Montgomery; Cachia, Pierre (1996). A History of Islamic Spain. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0847-8.
• Zayzafoon, Lamia Ben Youssef (2005). The Production of the Muslim Woman. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739110782.

• Works by Al-Ma'arri in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
• Works by Al-Ma'arri at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Al-Ma'arri at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• The Epistle of Forgiveness: A Vision of Heaven and Hell (Volume One), Abū Al ʿAlāʾ Al Maʿarrī
• Abu 'l-ʿAla al-Ma'arri's correspondence on vegetarianism, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902, p. 289, by D. S. Margoliouth
• 37 of al-Ma'arri's poems (in English), posted by Humanistictexts.org
• The Luzumiyat