Thought Sedative: Comparing Al-Maʿarri and Schopenhauer's Thoughts on Life

What is the difference between the human life and animal's? Does he really have freedom and authority? If he has, does authority make his life easier? How much does instinct dominate his wisdom? Maʿarri and Schopenhauer are two philosophers and literates who answered the abovementioned questions. The present paper attempts to study some common thoughts of Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri and Arthur Schopenhauer. Both had a kind of extreme realism toward life which usually known as pessimism. Both philosophers find life suffering and null but weren’t passive at all but tried to leave eternal works to calm down the ones who are thirsty to knowledge in different eras. The paper also tries to study their general thoughts about life comparatively.