The Religious Approach in Ruba'iyaat of Omar Al_Khayaam

Abstract

This study shows that Omar AL-khayaam included his own opinions in the his work "Ruba'iyaat Al Khayaam" in order not to have to include them in a separate book. In his comment in the preface to the translation by poet Ahmad Al-Safi Al-Najafi of the English translation of the work by the English poet Fitzgerald, Scholar Mohammad Qaswini says that there are many translations of the work into Arabic, but that it was Fitzgerald's English translation that was used by Arab translators as it was the best and most poetic and eloquent translation. In fact, it was Fitzgerald who introduced Omar Al-Khayaam to the west and the East.

While reading "Ruba'iyaat Al-Khayaam", some scholars have imagined that Al-Khayaam was Sufi depending in that on some of the thoughts Al-Khayaam introduced in his work unintentionally of which some have spread among the different schools.

In fact, he is closer to secularism than to piety and closer to skepticism than to certitude. He is not defending any clear philosophy in life, nor any message. He is a confused person according to Islam, troubled by his free mentality to understand everything on the Globe, yet, he did not have an opportunity to understand issues in life, which made his thoughts deviate from belief to skepticism. But he was not a drunkard person neither a quarrelsome one. If he had been so, he wouldn't have preserved his intellectual and ethicist position throughout his young and old age and he wouldn't have gained that reputation and high status until today.

Finally, if AlKhayyam had come back from his eternal sleep, he would have been surprised by the interest and attention his "Ruba'iyaat" has gained only because of his understanding of life according to the circumstances of his age. He was not an atheist  nor a polytheist, but an uncommitted Muslim who had his own philosophy in understanding the teachings of Islam like all the precedent philosophers, such as Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi. He was not a bad tempered or dissolute person because it would not have been reasonable for him then to accompany and sit with kings.