Rabi'ah al-Adawiyah

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Rabi'ah al-Adawiyah, al-Basri

Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya [d.717-801 C.E.] Radi Allahu anha was a female Sufi saint from Iraq, who first set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. Rabi'a was also known as 'Rabi'a al-Qaysiyya' or 'Rabi'a of Basrah' she was born in Basra, Iraq between the years 95 A.H. and 99 A.H. Not a great deal is known about Rabia al Basri radi Allahu ta'ala anha, except that she lived in abject poverty. But many spiritual stories are associated with her and what we can glean about her is reality merged with legend. These traditions come from FARID AL-DIN ATTAR a later sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources.


After her father's death, there was a famine in Basra, and during that she was parted from her family. It is not clear how she was traveling in a caravan that was set upon by robbers. She was taken by the robbers and sold into slavery. Her master worked her very hard, but at night after finishing her chores Rabia [Allah be pleased with her] would turn to meditation and prayers and praising the Lord. Foregoing rest and sleep she spent her nights in prayers and she often fasted during the day.

There is a story that once, while in the market, she was pursued by a vagabond and in running to save herself she fell and broke her arm. She prayed to the Lord .

"I am a poor orphan and a slave,
Now my hand too is broken.
But I do not mind these things if Thou be pleased with me. "

and felt a voice reply:

"Never mind all these sufferings. On the Day of Judgement you shall  be accorded a status that shall be the envy of the angels even"

One day the master of the house spied her at her devotions. There was a divine light enveloping her as she prayed. Shocked that he kept such a pious soul as a slave, he set her free. Rabia [Allah be pleased with her] went into the desert to pray and became an ascetic. Unlike many sufi saints she did not learn from a teacher or master but turned to Allah himself.

Throughout her life, her Love of Allah. Poverty and self-denial were unwavering and her constant companions. She did not possess much other than a broken jug, a rush mat and a brick, which she used as a pillow. She spent all night in prayer and contemplation chiding herself if she slept for it took her away from her active Love of Allah.

As her fame grew she had many disciples. She also had discussions with many of the renowned religious people of her time. While she apparently received many marriage offers (including a proposal from HASAN AL-BASRI himself), she refused them as she had no time in her life for anything other than Allah and so remained celibate. She died of old age, an ascetic, her only care from the disciples who followed her. She was the first in a long line of female Sufi mystics.

More interesting than her absolute asceticism, however, is the actual concept of Divine Love that Rabia introduced. She was the first to introduce the idea that Allah should be loved for Allah's own sake, not out of fear--as earlier Sufis had done.

When asked by Shaykh Hasan al-Basri Radi Allahu ta'ala anhu how she discovered the secret, she responded by stating:

You know of the how, but I know of the how-less.

One day, she was seen running through the streets of Basra carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When asked what she was doing, she said: I want to put out the fires of Hell, and burn down the rewards of Paradise. They block the way to Allah. I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of Allah.

She taught that repentance was a gift from Allah because no one could repent unless Allah had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping Allah neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of Allah's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e. hindrances to the vision of Allah Himself.

She prayed:

"O Allah! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship You for Your Own sake,
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty."

Rabia [Allah be pleased with her] was in her early to mid eighties when she died, having followed the mystic Way to the end.  By then, she was continually united with her Beloved.  As she told her Sufi friends,

"My Beloved is always with me"