Born 974AD. Blind academic, poet. Vegan and Skeptic.
"You are diseased in understanding and religion. Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.
Do not unjustly eat fish 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 industriously 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 wish that I had perceived
my way before my hair went gray!"
Unbelievably based, thanks for sharing. I love the sublime feeling one gets when they read something from the past that not only resonates today but seems to echo 1:1 issues and assumptions we think are "modern".
>For they did not store it that it might belong to others, nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
When I was a tween and started to object to eating meat I heard from relatives and others the following explanation: "God put animals on the Earth for humans to consume". Even at the time it struck me as a bone-headed "just-so" justification for something that everyone knew was kind of wrong but continued anyway. Now of course I have the rhetoric and vocabulary to describe that layman understanding and usage of religion to explain "how things are". Anyway, sorry for the tangent.
Very interesting post. I always considered the refusal to even eat honey to be a ridiculous purity signal by contemporary vegans but it's interesting to see that someone else derived the same proscription in an entirely different context.
Another fire post, we've been blessed recently. Gotta get back to cutting down on meat consumption.
Fascinating quote.
I myself am a meat eater,but I do respect the commitments that he made towards his own beliefs.
> 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 by various scholars as a "pessimistic freethinker", al-Ma'arri was a controversial rationalist of his time, known for challenging superstition and dogmatism. His written works exhibit a fixation on the study of language and its historical development, known as philology. He was pessimistic about life, describing himself as "a double prisoner" of blindness and isolation. Because his poetry fiercely critiqued the religious practices of his era, several critics interpreted his work as an attack on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism, with some historians asserting he became a deist. However, 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.
> He advocated social justice and lived a secluded, ascetic lifestyle. 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."[11] 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. 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.
Oh man… he’s just like me except blind and Muslim.
reddit philosopher sorry bruh
I know for a fact that eating factory farm meat is evil but I keep eating it, why is this?
he was incredibly based, love this quote/poem(?) "O'er many a race the sun's bright net was spread
And loosed their pearls nor left them even a thread.
This dire World delights us, though all sup,
All whom she mothers, from one mortal cup.
A choice of ills: which rather of the twain
Wilt thou?—to perish or to live in pain?"
>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.
Islam explicitly allows meat consumption and encourages animal sacrifice on Eid. Bro was coping
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_of_the_Animals_versus_Man
>Fī aṣnāf al-ḥayawānāt wa-ʿajāʾib hayākilihā wa-gharāʾib aḥwālihā (Arabic: في أصناف الحيوانات وعجائب هياكلها وغرائب أحوالها),[1] known in English as The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn,[a] is an epistle written by the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Ṣafā) in the 960s and first published as Epistle 22 in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The longest Encyclopedia entry, The Case of the Animals versus Man revolves around a group of talking animals who testify against humans in a session chaired by the ruler of the jinn. It has been favourably received by literary critics and translated into several languages.
That's a banger line. I like that for some people there's always been a tendency to make oneself a sort of cultural collage, something I relate to as well