Preface in Verse, a Poem on Medicine.

AVICENNA (980-1037)
Avicenna’s Poem on Medicine, transl. H.C. Krueger, Springfield 1963, pp. 14-57
Preface in Verse

Praise be to Allah, the Teacher, the Unique, Majesty of the Heavens, the Exalted, the
Glorious.

Glory be to Him, the Eternal Being who drew forth creatures from Nothingness.

He floods our minds with light to the point of having revealed to them that which was hidden.

In His goodness, He created man and gave him judgment and speech as privileges.

He allowedhim access to knowledge through the perceptions of his senses and, through reasoning, opened to him the invisible world.

The mind of man is bound to a living soul of which the existence is proved beyond all doubt.

Allah distributed judgment and senses among all men at the same time as life. But each one has his own character and in that His Marvellous Wisdom shines forth.

Thus, whoever has banished Ugliness from his soul has been able to acquire Virtue.

The arts and speech distinguish man from animal.

The best of men do good by accompanying it with courteous words, preoccupying themselves with the body, granting to it its rightful mirth.

Poets are the princes of the Word; physicians rule over the body.

The eloquence of the former rejoices the soul; the devotion of the latter cures illnesses. In this
poem is included all Theoretical and Practical Medicine.

And here I am, putting into verse all I know of this science.

Ibn Sinna (Avicenna)