Rabia al basri biography

A party of men once visited her to put her to the test, desiring to catch her out in an unguarded utterance. All the virtues have been scattered upon the heads of men, they said. The crown of prophethood has been placed on mens heads. The belt of nobility has been fastened around mens waists. No woman has ever been a prophet. All that is true, Rabia replied.

No woman has ever been a hermaphrodite. All these things have been the specialty of men. Once Rabia fell grievously sick. She was asked what the cause might be. I gazed upon Paradise, she replied, and my Lord disciplined me. Then Hasan of Basra went to rabia al basri biography her. I saw one of the notables of Basra standing at the door of Rabias hermitage offering her a purse of gold and weeping, he reported.

Do you intercede with her to take it. So Hasan entered and spoke. Rabia glanced up at him and said, He provides for those who insult Him, and shall He not provide for those who love Him? Ever since I knew Him, I have turned my back upon His creatures. I know not whether any mans property is lawful or not; how then can I take it? I stitched together by the light of a worldly lamp a shirt which I had torn.

For a while my heart was obstructed, until I remembered. Then I tore the shirt in the place where I had stitched it, and my heart became dilated. Ask the gentleman pray not to keep my heart obstructed. Abd al-Wahed-e Amer relates as follows. I went with Sofyan-e Thauri to visit Rabia when she was sick, but out of awe for her I could not begin to address her.

You say something, I said to Sofyan. If you will say a prayer, Sofyan said to Rabia, your pain will be eased. Do you not know who has willed that I should suffer? Was it not God? Yes, Sofyan agreed. How is it that you know that, Rabia went on, and yet you bid me to request from Him the contrary of His will? It is not right to oppose ones Friend.

What thing do you desire, Rabia? Sofyan asked. Sofyan, you are a learned man. Why do you speak like that? By the glory of God, Rabia asseverated, for twelve years now I have been desiring fresh dates. You know that in Basra dates are of no consequence. Yet till now I have not eaten any; for I am His servant, and what business has a servant to desire?

If I wish, and my Lord does not wish, this would be infidelity. You must want only what He wishes, to be a true servant of God. If God himself gives, that is a different matter. Sofyan was reduced to silence. Then he said, Since one cannot speak about your situation, do you say something about mine. You are a good man, but for the fact you love the world, Rabia replied.

You love reciting Traditions. This she said, implying that that was a high position. Lord God, cried Sofyan, deeply moved, be content with me! Are you not ashamed, broke in Rabia, to seek the contentment of One with whom you yourself are not content? Malek-e Dinar relates as follows. I went to visit Rabia, and saw her with a broken pitcher out of which she drank and made her ritual ablutions, an old reed-mat, and a brick which she occasionally used as a pillow.

I was grieved. I have rich friends, I told her. If you wish, I will get something from them for you. Malek, you have committed a grievous error, she answered. Is not my Provider and theirs one and the same? Yes, I replied.

Rabia al basri biography

And has the Provider of the poor forgotten the poor on account of their poverty? And does He remember the rich because of their riches? No, I replied. Then, she went on, since He knows my estate, how should I remind Him? Such is His will, and I too wish as He wills. He is not truthful in his claim, Hasan began, who does not bear with fortitude the lash of his Lord.

These words stink of egoism, Rabia commented. He is not truthful in his claim, Shaqiq tried, who is not grateful for the lash of his Lord. We need something better than that, Rabia observed. He is not truthful in his claim, Malek-e Dinar offered, who does not take delight in the lash of his Lord. We need something better than that, Rabia repeated.

Then you say, they urged. He is not truthful in his claim, Rabia pronounced, who does not forget the lash in contempla- tion of his Master. A leading scholar of Basra visited Rabia on her sickbed. Sitting beside her pillow, he reviled the world. You love the world very dearly, Rabia commented. If you did not love the world, you would not make mention of it so much.

Born in the year AD in Basra present-day Iraq and she was the fourth child to a poor couple. You have been blessed with a daughter who will be a great saint; her intercession will be wished for by seventy thousand of my community. While she apparently received many marriage offers including a proposal from Hasan al-Basri himselfshe remained celibate and 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. It is also possible that she helped further integrate Islamic slaves into Muslim society. Because of her time spent in slavery early in life, Rabi'a was rabia al basri biography against all forms of it. She refused a slave later in life. Speech is born out of longing, True description from the real taste.

The one who tastes, knows; the one who explains, lies. How can you describe the true form of Something In whose presence you are blotted out? And in whose being you still exist? And who lives as a sign for your journey? Her poems are par excellence. Could you please get back to me dr. Have a nice day, Ronald. She spent all night in prayer and contemplation chiding herself if she slept for it took her away from her active Love of God.

As her fame grew she had many disciples. She also had discussions with many of the renowned religious people of her time. Though she had many offers of marriage, and tradition has it one even from the Amir of Basra, she refused them as she had no time in her life for anything other than God. More interesting than her absolute asceticism, however, is the actual concept of Divine Love that Rabia introduced.

She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God 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.