THE POETRY OF AN OLD ATHEIST
by Kenan Malik
‘The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains.’ No, not the latest missive from Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris. In fact, it’s a missive not from a New Atheist at all, but from a very old one: Abul Ala Al-Ma’arri, a remarkable eleventh century Arab poet and freethinker. Today we have become used to thinking of the Islamic world as walled-in, insular, hostile to reason and […]
Categories: Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: al-ma'arri, aquinas, arab literature, aristotle, atheism, falsafah, god, greek philosophy, ibn rushd, ibn sina, judeo-christian tradition, mu'tazilite, muslim rationalism, muslims, poetry, religion
