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Rabia of Basra - Wikipedia

Rabia of Basra was an 8th century Muslim saint and Sufi mystic born in Basra, Iraq. She is considered one of the early influences in Sufism and its concept of divine love. Rabia was renowned for her extreme piety and devotion to God alone, without concern for rewards or punishments. She lived a life of asceticism and semi-seclusion in the desert. Rabia is still widely respected today as a model of spiritual devotion and love for God.

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328 views19 pages

Rabia of Basra - Wikipedia

Rabia of Basra was an 8th century Muslim saint and Sufi mystic born in Basra, Iraq. She is considered one of the early influences in Sufism and its concept of divine love. Rabia was renowned for her extreme piety and devotion to God alone, without concern for rewards or punishments. She lived a life of asceticism and semi-seclusion in the desert. Rabia is still widely respected today as a model of spiritual devotion and love for God.

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Rabia of Basra

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Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya (Arabic:


‫( )راﺑﻌﺔ اﻟﻌﺪوﻳﺔ اﻟﻘﻴﺴﻴﺔ‬714/717/718 — 801
CE)[1] was a Muslim saint and Sufi
mystic.[2] She is known in some parts of
the world as, Hazrat Bibi Rabia Basri,
Rabia Al Basri or simply Rabia Basri.[3]
Rabi'a al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya

Depiction of Rabi'a grinding grain from a Persian


dictionary

Born between 714-718 CE

Died 801 CE

Academic work

Main interests Sufism, Asceticism,


Divine love

Notable ideas Divine love

Influenced Hasan of Basra

Birth
This section relies largely or entirely on a single
source.
Learn more

Said to have been born between 714 and


718 CE (95 and 98 Hijri) in Basra,[1] Iraq
of the Qays tribe.[4] much of Rābiʻas early
life has been recounted by Farid ud-Din
Attar, a later Sufi saint and poet.

She herself left no written works about


her life. She was the fourth daughter of
her family and therefore named Rābiʻa,
meaning "fourth".

According to Fariduddin Attar, when


Rābiʻa was born, her parents were so
poor that there was no oil in house to
light a lamp, nor even a cloth to wrap her
with. Her mother asked her husband to
borrow some oil from a neighbor, but he
had resolved in his life never to ask for
anything from anyone except God. He
pretended to go to the neighbor's door
and returned home empty-handed. At
night Muhammad appeared to him in a
dream and told him,

"Your newly born daughter is a


favorite of the Lord, and shall
lead many Muslims to the right
path. You should approach the
Amir of Basra and present him
with a letter in which should be
written this message: 'You offer
Durood to the Holy Prophet
one hundred times every night
and four hundred times every
Thursday night. However, since
you failed to observe the rule
last Thursday, as a penalty you
must pay the bearer four
hundred dinars'".

Life
However, after the death of her father,
famine overtook Basra. She parted from
her sisters. Rabia went into the desert to
pray and became an ascetic, living a life
of semi-seclusion. She is often cited as
being the queen of saintly women,[5] and
was known for her complete devotion in
the form of "Pure unconditional love of
God." As an exemplar among others
devoted to God, she provided a model of
mutual love between God and His
creation; her example is one in which the
loving devotee on earth becomes one
with the Beloved.[5]

She prayed:

"O Lord, if I worship You


because of Fear of Hell,
then burn me in Hell;
If I worship You because I
desire Paradise,
then exclude me from Paradise;

But if I worship You for


Yourself alone,
then deny me not your Eternal
Beauty.[6]

Death
Rābiʻa died in her 80s[7] in Basra in 185
AH/801 CE, where her tomb was shown
outside the city.[1]

Philosophy
Often noted as having been the single
most famous and influential renunciant
women of Islamic history, Rābiʻa was
renowned for her extreme virtue and
piety. A devoted ascetic, when asked why
she performed a thousand ritual
prostrations both during the day and at
night, she answered:

"I desire no reward for it; I do


it so that the Messenger of God,
may God bless him and give
him peace, will delight in it on
the day of Resurrection and say
to the prophets, 'Take note of
what a woman of my
community has
accomplished'".[4]

She was intense in her self-denial and


devotion to God. She never claimed to
have obtained unity with Him; instead,
she dedicated her life to getting closer to
God.[8] As an explanation of her refusal to
lift her head toward the heavens [to God]
as an act of modesty, she used to say:
"Were the world the possession of a
single man, it would not make him rich ...
[B]ecause it is passing away."[4]

She was the one who first set forth the


doctrine of Divine Love known as Ishq-e-
Haqeeqi[9] and is widely considered to be
the most important of the early
renunciant, one mode of piety that would
eventually become labeled as Sufism.[3]

Poetry and myths


Much of the poetry that is attributed to
her is of unknown origin. After a life of
hardship, she spontaneously achieved a
state of self-realization. She was able to
perform divine miracles because of her
intimacy with God through this
introspection. When asked by Shaikh
Hasan al-Basri how she discovered the
secret, she responded by stating:
"You know of the how, but I
know of the how-less."[10]

One of the many myths that surround her


life is that she was freed from slavery
because her master saw her praying
while surrounded by light, realized that
she was a saint and feared for his life if
he continued to keep her as a slave.[8]

Feminist theory based on


the life of Rabi'a al-
Adawiyya
Several aspects of the Sufi religion
suggest that Sufi ideologies and
practices have stood as counters to
dominant society and its perception of
women and the relationships between
men and women. The stories detailing
the life and practices of Rabi'a al-
Adawiyya show a countercultural
understanding of the role of gender in
society. Her role as a spiritual and
intellectual superiority is depicted in
several narratives. In a Sufi narrative, Sufi
leader Hasan al-Basri explained, "I
passed one whole night and day with
Rabi'a ... it never passed through my
mind that I was a man nor did it occur to
her that she was a woman...when I
looked at her I saw myself as bankrupt
[i.e. as spiritually worth nothing] and
Rabi'a as truly sincere [rich in spiritual
virtue]."[11] However, she made a decision
to stay celibate in order to leave her
womanhood behind and devote herself
completely to God.[8]

Anecdotes
One day, she was seen running through
the streets of Basra carrying a pot of fire
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."[12]
In popular culture
The life of Rabia has been the subject of
several motion pictures by Turkish
cinema. One of these films, Rabia,
released in 1973, was directed by Osman
F. Seden, and Fatma Girik played the
leading role of Rabia.[13]

Rabia, İlk Kadın Evliya (Rabia, The First


Woman Saint), another Turkish film on
Rabia, also of 1973 was directed by
Süreyya Duru and starred by Hülya
Koçyiğit.[14]

See also
Zawiyat al-Adawiya, Jerusalem - a
tomb venerated as Rabia's

References
1. Margaret Smith (1995). Encyclopedia
of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. 8, "Rābiʻa al-
ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya". Brill. pp. 354–56.
2. Smith, Margaret (2010). Rabi'a The
Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam .
Cambridge University Press. p. 252.
ISBN 9781108015912.
3. Hanif, N. (2002). Biographical
Encyclopaedia of Sufis: Central Asia and
Middle East . Sarup & Sons. pp. 108–10.
ISBN 9788176252669.
4. a-Ra'uf al-Munawi, 'Abu (1998). Renard,
John, ed. Windows on the House of
Islam. Berkeley, CA: University of
California. pp. 132–33.
5. Khawar Khan Chrishti, Saadia (1997).
Hossein Nasr, Seyyed, ed. Islamic
Spirituality Foundations. New York:
Crossroads. pp. 208–10.
6. Willis Barnstone; Aliki Barnstone
(1992). A book of women poets from
antiquity to now By . Schocken Books,
Inc. p. 90. ISBN 978-93-82277-87-3.
7. "Rabia al Basri" . Poetseers.org.
Retrieved 5 May 2016.
8. Barbara Lois Helms, Rabi'a as Mystic,
Muslim and Woman
9. Margaret Smith, Rabi'a The Mystic and
Her Fellow-Saints in Islam, Cambridge
Library Collection, 1928.
10. Farid al-Din Attar, Rabe'a [sic] al-
Adawiya, from Muslim Saints and
Mystics, trans. A.J. Arberry, London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.
11. Ahmed, Leila (1992). Women and
Gender in Islam. Yale University. p. 96.
12. Attar, Farid al-Din (c. 1230). Memorial
of the Friends of God (2009 Translation
by Losensky ed.).
13. "Rabia (1973)" . IMDb.com. Retrieved
5 May 2016.
14. "Rabia/İlk Kadın Evliya" .
Sinematurk.com. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
Further reading
Kayaalp, Pinar, "Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya", in
Muhammad in History, Thought, and
Culture: An Encyclopedia of the
Prophet of God (2 vols.), edited by C.
Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa
Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014, Vol. II,
pp. 511–12; ISBN 1610691776
Mohammad, Shababulqadri Tazkirah e
Hazrat Rabia Basri, Mushtaq Book
Corner, 2008

External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to:
Rabia Basri

Sufimaster.org - Teachings
Sufi Teachings-Writings-Rabia-al-Basri
Rabia-al-adawiya.over-blog.com

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