The Sciences of Poetry and Arithmetic

For whoever fears God Most High, He suffices him against men; and whoever pleases men at the cost of God's wrath, God sets over him the very one he pleased. And it is indeed a weighty thing, save for the humble.

( The Science of Poetry (al-shiʻr) )

Poetry is one of the arts of the prose composer. It is speech: so the good of it is good — and that is the lesser part — and the foul of it is foul, and that is the greater part. Its treasury is lying, and excess in panegyric, in lampoon, in simile, in epithets and in martial boasting; and the most charming of it is the most false of it. So if the poet is eloquent, fluent, forward in lying with his tongue, set upon earning his living by poetry and thin in religion, then he has read the loathing of poetry in the Sūrah of the Poets (al-Shuʻarāʼ). It is a rare thing for accomplished poets to keep themselves clear of lampoon, and the matter may bring the poet to overstep into unbelief — we ask for pardon. The poet who does well is like Ḥassān; the temperate one like Ibn al-Mubārak; the wrongdoing one like al-Mutanabbī; the insolent debauchee like Ibn al-Ḥajjāj; and the unbelieving one like the men of union (al-ittiḥād). So choose for yourself which valley you will walk in.

( The Science of Arithmetic (al-ḥisāb) )

Arithmetic and the instituting of the register (al-dīwān) belong to the sciences of the Copts and the Persians; they are no part of the sciences of Islam.(1) It is a craft and a livelihood by which a man attains felicity

— Notes —

[28] (1) It is as though he were letting himself forget what has been said concerning the words of God Most High, reported of Joseph, peace be upon him, “I am a trusty keeper, knowing” — that is, a keeper of tongues, knowing the science of arithmetic, as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Māwardī and others have mentioned.