The Attack on Syrian Heritage Continues: Between Glorifying the Past, Longing for It, and Facing Present Challenges… A Task is Required | Fahed Arabi

“How much we once longed to praise that time, but now we are preoccupied with criticizing this time.”

In these verses, the poet and philosopher Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma’arri expressed a common human paradox: “attachment to the past coupled with dissatisfaction with the present,” often without reflection on the underlying causes.

It seems that the human role is limited to blaming the circumstances they live in, becoming preoccupied with this, and then bestowing an aura of idealism on the past, without translating their glorification of the past into actions in the present, to preserve its values or use it as a reference to change the reality.

This could, as al-Ma’arri intended, be a form of cultural hypocrisy, or perhaps a psychological escape from the repeated shocks of the present, expressing a human need to seek answers to complex questions, without researching or acting, from a position of irresponsibility toward society, and indifference toward the nation.

Today’s Incident: Heritage Fading in the Face of Reality’s Shocks

The paradox mentioned above is painfully reflected in what happened in the town of Ma’arat al-Numan in northern Syria, where local media outlets circulated recent images showing the damage to the tomb of the poet and philosopher Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma’arri, vandalized by unknown individuals, representing a new chapter in a series of violations targeting his intellectual symbolism since the conflict began in the country.

It Was Not the First Time

In 2013, the statue of al-Ma’arri was also targeted, its head removed, its base damaged, and it was shot at. Earlier, local reports indicated that armed groups affiliated with the former regime had violated the tomb and looted its contents. Since the beginning of the conflict, the fallen and current Syrian government has not announced any plans to protect or defend Syria’s cultural heritage. The assault on al-Ma’arri’s tomb is not the first to target Syria’s cultural heritage.

A Glimpse into al-Ma’arri

Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma’arri was born in 973 and died in 1057. He is considered one of the most prominent thinkers of the Abbasid era, known for his deep poetry, critical thought, and dialectical philosophy. One of his most notable works is “The Epistle of Forgiveness,” which some researchers compare to Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in terms of depth and imagination.

The Paradox Between Saying and Doing

Returning to the verse, the paradox lies not only in criticizing the present and glorifying the past but also in disregarding the heritage of that past when it reappears before us in the present. The attack on cultural and intellectual symbols like al-Ma’arri does not represent mere material destruction but signals a cultural rupture and a disconnection from a memory that is supposed to be part of the collective identity.

A Call for Reflection

Those who complain about the present and long for a past glory are invited to ask themselves: Do they honor this past in their actions in the present? Do they actively benefit from its heritage and civilization to change the reality for the better? Or has the longing for the past become just a ritual, a temporary psychological response that allows a person to hide from a difficult reality and justify their existence, without transforming their ideas into real action?

A Truth Avoided by Governments and Cultural Elites

The attack on cultural symbols cannot be confronted with nostalgia, slogans, and lamenting the past. It must be addressed by reviving the inherited thought of the past through critical study, before it is translated into behavior, stance, and action in the present, in pursuit of change.

فيديو خاص لـ”اندبندنت عربية” | مجهولون يحطمون الضريح التاريخي للشاعر أبي العلاء المعري في سوريا#نكمن_في_التفاصيل pic.twitter.com/TvvC9O3xNl

— Independent عربية (@IndyArabia) April 3, 2025