The Quatrains of Abu'l-Ala

N hen all Europe was arming itself for the first crusade, when the Northmen were ravaging the western world with their marauding expeditions, When the Califs were engaged in bloody battle with their rebel lious subjects, abu'l-ala was waging his silent and bloodless war on the follies and evils of his age. He attacked the superstitions and the false' traditions of religions, and proclaimed the supremacy of the mind; he hurled his trenchant invectives at the tyranny and despot ism of rulers, and asserted the supremacy of the human soul; he stood for perfect equality, and fought against the fallacies, the Shams and the lies of the ruling class of his time, in its social, religious and political aspects.