Al Ma'arri

[karthik_v]

Al Ma'arri lived over 1000 years ago in Syria. He was a Muslim apostate and a great poet. He camouflaged his verses in such a way as to escape persecution - after all, the punishment for apostacy from Islam is death. He had contempt for all religions and prophets, though he seems to display some admiration for the Hindus. Here are the excerpts:

 

The holy fights by Moslem heroes fought,

The saintly works by Christian hermits wrought

And those of Jewry or of Sabian creed --

Their valour reaches not the Indian's deed

Whom zeal and awe religiously inspire

To cast his body on the flaming pyre.

 

He also displayed quite a witty and pessimistic view of life:

 

What inconsistency that God should forbid the taking of life, and Himself send two angels to take each man's! And as for the promise of a second life -- the soul could well have dispensed with both existences.

 

He had nothing but contempt for the prophets:

 

The Prophets, too, among us come to teach,

Are one with those who from the pulpit preach;

They pray, and slay, and pass away, and yet

Our ills are as the pebbles on the beach.

 

And some special "love" for Mohammad:

 

Mohammed or Messiah! Hear thou me,

The truth entire nor here nor there can be;

How should our God who made the sun and the moon

Give all his light to One, I cannot see.

 

And all the semitic religions take some beating here:

 

Tis strange that Kurash and his people wash

Their faces in the staling of the kine;

And that the Christians say, Almighty God

Was tortured, mocked, and crucified in fine:

And that the Jews should picture Him as one

Who loves the odor of a roasting chine;

And stranger still that Muslims travel far

To kiss a black stone said to be divine:

Almighty God! will all the human race

Stray blindly from the Truth's most sacred shrine?

 

For more fun, go to: http://www.secularislam.org/skeptics/almaarri.htm