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

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СКАЧАТЬ وخاطَب به غير مستَحِقِّه. وما يستَحِقّ زمانٌ ساعدَه بلقاءِ سيف الدولة أن يُطلِق على أهلِه الذمَّ. وكيف وهو القائل:

أَسيرُ إلى إقطاعِه في ثيابِه

على طِرْفِه من دارِه بحُسامِهِ

      وقد كان من حقّه أن يجعلهم في خِفارته، إذ كانوا منسوبين إليه محسوبين عليه. ولا يجب أن يشكو عاقلاً ناطقًا إلى غير عاقلٍ ولا ناطقٍ، إذ الزمان حركاتُ الفلك إلا أن يكون مِمَن يعتقد أن الأفلاك تَعقِل وتعلَم وتفهم، وتدري بمواقع أفعالها، بقصود وإرادات، ويَحمله هذا الاعتقادُ على أن يُقرِّب لها القرابين ويُدَخِّنَ الدُخْن، فيكون مناقضًا لقوله

فتَبًّا لدين عبيدِ النجومِ

ومَن يَدّعِي أنها تعقِلُ

      أو يكونَ كما قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم: مُذَبْذَبِينَ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ لا إِلَى هَؤُلاءِ وَلا إِلَى هؤُلاءِ ويوشك أن تكون هذه صفته.

      Al-Mutanabbī19 says:

      I blame the manikins of these our times.

      using the diminutive (“manikin” of “man”), out of deprecation and not veneration, and by making them few and not many; thus spitting out his words like someone with a disease of the chest,20 by which his hidden mind was expressed. This is possible in the figurative language of poetry, and one is not forbidden to say such things in verse or prose, but he said it inappropriately and addressed it to people who did not deserve it. A time in which he has had the good fortune to meet Sayf al-Dawlah does not deserve to have its people blamed. How could it, when he himself said,

      I go to his fief in his clothes

      on his steed from his house with his sword.

      He should have considered that these people are under Sayf al-Dawlah’s protection; they were affiliated to him and his protégés. And one should not complain to a reasonless, dumb object about persons possessing reason and speech: for “time” is no more than the movements of the celestial sphere—unless he is one of those who believe that these spheres possess reason and have knowledge and understanding, aware of the effect of their actions, with intentions and volitions, and who by their belief are induced to bring sacrifices and burnt offerings to them. In that case he would contradict his own words:

      Perish the religion of the worshippers of stars

      and those who claim that these have reason.

      Or he would be as God the Exalted says in His noble Book:21 «Wavering between this, not to these, not to those»; he all but answers to this description.

      2.7.2

      حكى القُطْرَبُّليّ^١ وابن أبي الأزهر في كتابٍ اجتمعا على تصنيفه – وأهلُ بغداد وأهلُ مصر يزعمون أنه لم يُصَنَّف في معناه مثله، لصِغَر حجمه وكِبَر علمه – يحكيان فيه أن المتنبّي أُخرج ببغداد من الحبس إلى مجلس أبي الحسن عليّ بن عيسى الوزير – رحمه الله. فقال له: أنت أحمد المتنبي؟ فقال: أنا أحمد النبي، وكشف عن بطنه فأَراه سَلْعة فيه وقال: هذا طابع نُبُوَّتي وعلامة رسالتي. فأمر بقلعِ جَمشَكه^٢ وصَفَعَه به خمسين، وأعاده إلى محبسه.

      ويقول لسيف الدولة:

وتغضبونَ على مَنْ نال رِفْدَكُمُ

حتى يُعاقِبَه التنغيصُ والمِنَنُ

      وكذب والله، لقد كان يتحرّش بالمكارم ويتحكّك بها، ويحسد عليها أن تكون إلا منه وبه. وهذا غيرُ قادحٍ في طُلاوة شعره ورَونَق ديباجته.

      ١ ب: (القُطْرُبُّلّي) بضمة الراء وتشديد اللام، والصحيح ما أثبتناه.

      ٢ ب: (جُمْشُكِهِ )، والصحيح ما أثبتناه.

      In a book on which they collaborated—the people of Baghdad and Cairo claim that nothing like it was ever written on the subject, on account of its slim size and its great learning—al-Quṭrabbulī22 and Ibn Abī l-Azhar23 tell how al-Mutanabbī was taken from prison in Baghdad, to the court of Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, the vizier (God have mercy upon him).24 The latter asked, “Are you Aḥmad, the would-be prophet (al-mutanabbī)?” Al-Mutanabbī replied, “I am Aḥmad the prophet (al-nabī)!”25 He bared his stomach and showed him a wen.26 “This,” he said, “is the stamp of my prophethood and the sign of my mission.” The vizier gave orders that his shoe be removed and his head be slapped with it fifty times. Then he sent him back to his prison.

      Al-Mutanabbī also said, addressing Sayf al-Dawlah:

      You are angry with him who has obtained your support,

      so that annoyance and gifts27 torment him.28

      He lies, by God! He had been badgering him about these acts of generosity and rubbing him up about them, jealously wanting them to come only from him and through him. But this does not detract from the polish of his poetry or the splendor of its fine style.

      3.1

      ولكني أغتاظ على الزنادقةِ والملحدين الذين يتلاعبون بالدين، ويرومون إدخال الشُبَهِ والشكوك على المسلمين، ويستَعذِبون القدح في نبوّة النبيّين، صلواتُ الله عليهم أَجمعين، ويتظرّفون ويبتدئون إعجابًا بذلك المذهب:

      تِيهُ مُغَنٍّ وظَرْفُ زنديقِ

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