In existographies, Abdallah al-Marri (973-1057) (IQ:175|#233) (Murray 4000:3|AL) (FA:32) (CR:10), oft-cited as "al-Marri", aka the "Arab Lucretius" (Issa, 2016), was a Syrian-born blind philosopher, poet, skeptic, and irreligionist (Ѻ), historically “Arab atheist” (Ѻ), noted for his attacks on the dogmas of religion, his rejection of Islam, his sarcasm towards the religions of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, and his general view that religion consisted of ancient fables used to exploit the masses. (Ѻ)“The heretics in Islam are three: Ibn al Rawandi, Abu Hayyan al Tawhidi, and Abu Alaa al-Ma’arri–of them, mostly Abu Hayyan, because they (attempt to) edify grandiloquence but in fact they babble.”— Ibn al-Jawziyyah (c.1325) [3]
See also: Middle ages geniusAl-Marri is oft-compared to the following:
“It takes a keen mind [something Alfred von Kremer (c.1875) (Ѻ) lacked] to examine the language and style [of the poetry of Al-Marri] with sufficient closeness to detect the subtle manner in which the poet at once disguises and proclaims his unbelief in the Mohammedan or any other revealed religion. Al-Marri contemplates life with the profound feelings of Lucretius and is like Lucian.”— Reynold Nicholson (1920), Studies in Islamic Poetry [4]
“Al-Marri is one of the great doubters of all time.”— Jennifer Hecht (2004), Doubt: a History [4]
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| Left: the 1944 bust of al-Marri, by sculptor Fathi Muhammad. Right: a photo of the beheaded (and shot) Al-Marri, in his Syrian hometown of Maarrat al Nu’man (Ѻ), aka “al-Ma’arra” (from which his nisba or Arabic toponymic nickname is derived), done by the al-Qaeda jihadists from the Al-Nusra Front. [3] |
“If a man of sound judgment appeals to his intelligence, he will hold cheap the various creeds and despise them.”— Al Marri (c.1020) [2]
“Humanity follows two world-wide sects: one, men intelligent but without religion, second, men religious but without intellect.”— Al Marri (c.1020), “The Epistle of Forgiveness” (Ѻ); this statement, of note, is misattributed, by Madalyn O’Hair (Ѻ), in her The Atheist World (1991) (pg. 46), to Averroes; variant later said (Ѻ) by Goethe [1]
“Young men grow up in the belief to which his father has accustomed him. It is not reason that makes him religious, but he is taught religion his next of kin.”— Al Marri (c.1020) [2]
“They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are fiction from first to last. Reason alone speaks the truth.”— Al Marri (c.1020) [2]
“The sacred stones in Mecca, visited and touched with hands and lips, are stones that were once kicked.”— Al Marri (c.1020) [2]
“The Christians have lied concerning the son of Mary. The Jews also lied concerning the son of Amran.”— Al Marri (c.1020) [2]
“Had they been left alone with reason, they would not have accepted a spoken lie; but the whips were raised to strike them down. Traditions were brought to them, and they were bidden to say, ‘we have been told the truth’, and if they refused, the sword was drenched in their blood.”— Al Marri (c.1020) [2]
