Al-Mawardi Quotes on Knowledge
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Māwardī (974–1058), the Shāfiʿī jurist whose Ordinances of Government (al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭāniyya) supplied medieval Sunni political jurisprudence with its founding systematic treatise, gave eleventh-century Islamic thought its principal exposition of the knowledge required for the legitimate exercise of political authority. The framework analyzes the rights and duties of the caliph, the wazir, the provincial governor, the qāḍī, and the lower officeholders within an integrated juridical architecture in which religious knowledge (ʿilm), practical wisdom, and the actual conditions of governance under Abbasid political fragmentation are carefully balanced. The work would supply the standard reference point for subsequent Sunni political theory through the early-modern period.
Quotes
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“هذا جَنَاهُ أَبي عَلَيَّ وما جَنَيْتُ عَلَى أَحَدْ”
This wrong was by my father done To me, but ne’er by me to one. As quoted in Three Great Abbasid Poets: Abu Nuwas, Al-Mutanabbi & Al-Ma'arri, Lives & Poems (2015) by Paul Smith, with the following explanation: "Abu 'l-'Alá regarded procreation as a sin and universal annihilation as the best hope for humanity. He acted in accordance with his opinions, for he never married, and he is said to have de -
“Alternate Translation of Kevin Blankinship : This is my father’s crime against me, which I myself committed against none.”
هذا جَنَاهُ أَبي عَلَيَّ وما جَنَيْتُ عَلَى أَحَدْ -
“Risalat al-Ghufran (The Epistle of Forgiveness) [ 1 ]”
Sometimes you may find a man skillful in his trade, perfect in sagacity and in the use of arguments, but when he comes to religion he is found obstinate, so does he follow in the old groove. Piety is implanted into human nature; it is deemed a sure refuge. To the growing child, that which falls from his mother's lips is a lesson that abides with him all his life. Monks in their cloisters and devot -
“Spoken by poet Aws ibn Hajar in Risalat al-Ghufran . [ 2 ]”
Some worse people than I have entered Paradise! But it is not everybody’s fortune to be granted forgiveness, it is like wealth in the Fleeting World.