Daily writing produces eloquence… and tasting knowledge opens the door to sciences.

A lesson on how to appreciate sciences, acquire literary talent, and the ability to express the desires of the soul eloquently, presented by the Moroccan jurist Mouloud Al-Sariri, director of the ancient Tanakrt School, at the conclusion of lessons he gave for months explaining “Al-Hariri’s Maqamat,” one of the best examples of literary creativity in the Arabic language.

Al-Sariri pointed out that the way to acquire the ability to express eloquently, in writing and speech, is “writing,” then daily practice, listening to eloquent speech, reading literary books, analyzing texts, and dialogue; because “he who does not dialogue cannot change.”

Then the Moroccan jurist added, explaining: “Dialogue does not need people. (If you do not find them), engage in dialogue with the cup, and you like ‘atay’, and engage in dialogue with the book, and talk to it, tell it what is happening; but try to speak in clear Arabic. The book will not criticize you, and the cup will not hear you, so do not be afraid.”

Al-Sirri also stated that “the more you love something, the more you will love it.” He continued: “Love for science should be something that is required, and alienating people from science has led to people hating it, especially in religious sciences by teaching people in a repulsive way.” Therefore, one should work on one’s own in order to “taste literature, words, and science.” As for “people who have not tasted knowledge, they do not like to listen to researchers in rational knowledge. The layman tastes what is related to instinct, psychological matters, and emotions, while tasting rational matters requires training.”

The necessity of writing exercise

Mawloud Al-Sariri said: “The literary craft cannot be mastered in the required manner by memorizing words and citing evidence for their meanings. Rather, what must be known is that this craft cannot be handled in the required manner except through methods that lead to attaining the ability on which it is based, which is the ability that gives the ability to handle this craft in the required manner. Knowledge cannot be studied without knowing its purpose, which is: the ability to extract the meanings and images in the soul and make them words.”

The speaker added: “This cannot be achieved by memorizing words while bringing evidence of their existence in the language, and perhaps the study extends to metaphor. Rather, the goal cannot be achieved except by writing first, and this act is a condition for forming this ability, and writing here is descriptive writing; that is, you write about something that you describe, according to your ability, then you advance in that craft step by step, then you search for references that help you gain more ability in this field, then after that you call upon the knowledge that you study in the science of rhetoric.”

Then the Moroccan jurist continued: “Perhaps some people consider that starting with a simple description is not worthy of consideration, and this is the greatest disease of those who learn this. They do not know that what they despise is the key. When you hold the pen and write on the paper, you may look at what you are writing with contempt for it, but in the function of formation, and building the ability to speak and depict the intended meaning, it is not like that.”

He added: “The beginning is with description, description of the action, the animal, the river, and the gathering of people, without slackening in this matter; until you ascend to enter into the privacy of souls, and this is a great entrance for writers; for the one who is able to enter into the human soul, and come with a description of it, discovering what it conceals of matters, this is the beginning of the literary craft in the chapter of description, and seeking this talent without this action is something that there is no way to, that is, for the language to be subject to your will, and its crisis is in your hand.”

The description, according to Al-Sariri, which seeks to encompass all the details of the described, draws on “the power of expression that is said to be latent in the soul, not taken from outside,” and then after writing it should be “presented to someone you see as having the ability to evaluate (…) and literary evaluation is for someone who has practiced this craft for a long time, for this is the one who will do that, then he will stop you at your characteristics that are part of your possession, and perhaps what is in your inner being of talent will be revealed to him from this statement; that is, people carry within themselves some talents that are hidden and are not revealed except through cognitive work.”

He continued, saying: “There is a person whose soul has some talents that, if they are not nurtured and developed, will wither and die, and this is a harm that comes back to people with what you see of failure in perception, the inability to express what is inside the soul, and this is a clear and obvious matter in this education that was placed in this form that you know; if the knowledge was not revealed in order to obtain its crisis and deal with it, then this cannot be considered a pursuit of knowledge in a correct cognitive manner, so writing is necessary, so how can we know the areas of perception and the nature of souls other than in this way?”

The lecturer stated that people in writing “are of different classes; but what is indisputable is that unless you work with your hands you cannot discover the craft; unless you persevere in this matter daily, and every morning and every evening you must allocate a portion of time devoted to this matter. You may describe a person you met that day, or you may describe something that happened, and it is not required for this that you reach the level of Qais bin Sa’idah or Suhban Wa’il in speech, and no one will ask you to arrange speech in the manner of the eloquent, but you are asked to draw on your strength for the ability to speak.”

If a person encounters “some difficulty at first, because he was not accustomed to this matter from the beginning,” then he can “deceive him by imitation; for some people, if they see that this matter is not within their nature, imitate writers, and go along with them in changing the subject while coordinating the arrangement of speech. This is something that students of literature resort to, so they come, for example, to the books of Ibn al-Muqaffa’ or al-Jahiz, or al-Manfaluti, whose language is not strong, but if they begin with him, then repeat with those mentioned, then this will be more beneficial. And the same is the case with dozens of masters of this craft; by writing about what they wrote in it, but with changing the title, and bringing a description equal to that description, while searching for how this person coordinated this speech and this sequence.” Then “things move, and man is by nature an imitator (…) and is affected by imitation, so if time passes and a person continues on this path, then the state of the imitator necessarily appears in him,” even though “imitation is not good; but it is necessary in the beginning of the matter,” and “the misfortune of knowledge among us is that we take it theoretically and do not apply it to reality.”

Memorization is not enough

Al-Sirri wondered in his lesson: “What is the benefit of saying that we have memorized a certain linguistic material and have grasped its meanings that came in the true sense, not metaphorically, and then if we need this to express what is inside us, we are unable to do so!? What kind of formation is this?” He continued: “Do you think that in our time you will form without self-reliance? You are delusional. If you depend on studying, you will remain ignorant until the Day of Judgment; the sources of knowledge have dried up in the minds and hearts (…) and words are charged with the nature of the speaker, there is no dispute about that; but the scientific faculties that were transmitted in the way that the predecessors did are weak in this time, so the seeker of knowledge must set for himself a path in which he begins with the first condition: writing; write, then write, then burn, then write, then burn, until you are assured that your writing is worthy of life.”

If the seeker of eloquence does not adopt this method in acquiring the ability to write or extracting it from the soul, “then time will be wasted, and no benefit will be expected from these studies, except for rumination, memorization, and citing. Then, if you move him beyond what he has memorized and taught him, the sheikh’s donkey will stop at the obstacle, and this is something that cannot be called knowledge,” even though “rumination has become the dominant nature of people in study today.”

Al-Sarari explained that “the world today begins with action, not vision,” then he returned to the eloquent Arab, “the crude one who walks in the desert, not knowing how to write or read, and he has acquired the ability to eloquence, clarity, and precise depiction, through action and speaking every day; he hears and speaks, describes, and moves the muscles of his tongue, and the muscles of his mind move in this way, and the tongue has an effect on the heart and the brain, giving it types and forms of bodies and characteristics.”

Then, after acquiring “capital from others” and investing it in writing and what supports it, profit can come, according to the participant, who also explained that one of the ways to support writing is “analysis by looking at the names of the structures, the type of metaphor and the meaning, then if you are unable to name, then you need to read the science of rhetoric”; but “the scale without a commodity is a waste of time, and the need first is to find the commodity, so the student writes first, then names the structures and their sections, and these are useful intellectual matters to extract the treasures of others’ speech, while looking into the soundness of the structure, and after this matter you look into the level of attribution until you become familiar with the speech and it becomes familiar with you, and you become able to enter into it, after beginning to possess its keys, to open it in order to deduce what is inside it.”

The Moroccan jurist explained that “the one who talks to himself on the road, and places himself in the position of the one being addressed, comes up with things to train himself with so that his tongue is smooth in speech, so there is no problem with that (…) So what is the meaning of staying in school for years, until if you are asked to give a speech in front of the crowd, you start to tremble, and read the paper ten times, rather you should be a professional, and you should have learned these things in school, gradually, constantly and persistently, with friends if there are any, and if there are none, be one.”

Al-Sarari criticized the reality of education today, as “sciences are not promoted, but rather memorization and indoctrination, and sciences and knowledge require specificity and conditions (…) and the storms of this time, few people have escaped from them.” Many students were self-made, but “with time they fail, and we have seen minds here that, if they had been directed in the right direction and invested in the required manner, would have had a role, but they have vanished, died and withered, not because of weakness in mental perceptions, but because of poor guidance.”

Al-Sarari also criticized memorization for the sake of memorization, without thinking about the reason for memorization, and using what is memorized in writing; “The recorder memorizes, but does not think, produce, or bear fruit, while man is a productive producer, not a memorization machine.” This is not to despise memorization, but rather to warn that “memorization is beneficial with understanding and application.”

He continued: “Writing is a sport for the mind, like someone who runs every morning, or someone who talks to himself. They are not crazy; rather, the first needs his body to run to get stronger, and the second trains the muscles of his tongue and mind to acquire the ability easily (…) This is useful in the Arabic language and foreign languages. As for the lethargy and death that has become widespread, this is something that young people must remove and eliminate.”

The Moroccan jurist continued to explain the purpose of his lessons in explaining “Al-Hariri’s Maqamat”: “Unless these things are transferred to action, we will waste time meaninglessly. Let us not forget that this is only something that helps and not the original goal. The student should determine what he wants in these chapters, and seek it through his means and methods. If the goal is not determined, we cannot know what to do. Determine your purpose, search for it, and make it your goal, and do not sleep. What repels students from knowledge is the lack of taste, meaning that they do not taste knowledge, and if they tasted it, they would become addicted to it.” Also, “The issue is only an issue of exerting effort, and not an issue of time. Knowledge requires hardship.”