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

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 لي أن للقرامطة بالأحساء بيتًا يزعُمون أن إمامهم يخرج منه، ويقيمون على باب ذلك البيت فرسًا بسَرجٍ ولِجام، ويقولون للهَمَج والطغام: هذا الفرس لركاب المهديّ، يركبه متى ظهر بحقّ بديٍ. وإنما غرضهم بذلك خَدْعٌ وتعليل، وتوصّلٌ إلى المملكة وتضليل.

      For as long as it has existed, Yemen has been a breeding ground of people who through religion earn their livelihood, and by fair pretense contrive to get ill-gotten good. Someone who traveled there told me that to this very day a group of people live there, each of whom claims to be the expected messiah²⁰⁸ and they never fail to receive money through a taxation, for their base ambitions’ gratification. I have been told that the Carmathians in al-Aḥsā keep a house from which, as they claim, their imam will come forth. They have a horse, saddled and bridled, standing at its door and say to the common people and the vulgar herd: “This horse is destined for the stirrup of the Mahdi, who will mount it when he appears with unprecedented Truth.” Their only object in this is quite simply deceit and specious argumentation, to lead people astray and gain domination.

      27.5.5

      ومن أعجب ما سمعتُ أن بعض رؤساء القرامطة في الدهر القديم، لما حضرته المنيّةُ جمع أصحابَه وجعل يقول لهم لمّا أحسّ بالموت: إني قد عزمت على النُّقلة، وقد كنت بعثتُ موسى وعيسى ومحمدًا، ولا بُدّ لي أن أبعث غيرَ هؤلاء! فعليه اللعنة، لقد كفر أعظمَ الكفر، في الساعة التي يجب أن يؤمن فيها الكافرُ، ويؤوب إلى آخرته المسافر.

      One of the strangest things I have heard is that long ago, when one of the leaders of the Carmathians was on his deathbed and felt death approaching, he gathered his followers and began to say, “I am resolved to migrate. I have already sent Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad; now I must send someone else.” A curse upon him! He committed the gravest kind of unbelief, at the moment when it is incumbent on the unbeliever to believe and on the traveler to return to his final destination.

      Al-Walīd ibn Yazīd

      28.1.1

      وأما الوليد بن يزيد فكان عقله عقلَ وليد، وقد بلغ سنّ الكهل الجليد، ما أغنتْه نيةٌ سابجةٌ، ولا نفعت البُنابجة. وشُغل عن الباطية، بجريرة النفس الخاطية. دحاه إلى سَقَرَ داحٍ، فما يغترف بالأقداح. وقد رُويت له أشعار، يلحق به منها العار، كقوله:

أَدْنِيا منّي خليلي	عَبْدَلًا دونَ الإزارِ
فلقد أيقنتُ أني	غيرُ مبعوثٍ لنارِ
واتْركا مَن يطلب الجنّـ	ـةَ يسعى في خَسارِ
سأروض الناسَ حتى	يركبوا دين الحِمارِ

      فالعَجبُ لزمانٍ صيّر مثله إماما، وأَورده من المملكة جِماما، ولعل غيره ممن مَلَكَ يعتقد مِثلَه أو قريبا، ولكن يساتر ويخاف تثريبا. ومما يُروى له:

أنا الإمام الوليد مفتخرًا	أجُرّ بُرْدي وأسمعُ الغَزَلا
أسحَبُ ذيْلي إلى منازلها	ولا أُبالي مَن لام أو عذلا
ما العيش إلا سماعُ مُحْسِنةٍ	وقهوةٌ تترُك الفتى ثمِلا
لا أرتجي الحُور في الخلود وهل	يأمُل حُورَ الجِنان من عقَلا؟
إذا حَبَتْك الوِصالَ غانيةٌ	فجازِها بَذْلَها كمَنْ وصَلا

      Al-Walīd ibn Yazīd²⁰⁹ he had the intelligence of an infant indeed, though he had reached the age of solid maturity. A firm(?)²¹⁰ intention did not avail him, nor was the vessel(?) of any use to him. He was distracted from the wine pitcher by the sin of his erring soul.²¹¹ He was driven into Hellfire, where he does not СКАЧАТЬ