Rabia Al Basri/Al Adaweyya (The most famous female Sufi "saint")
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Join date : 2011-04-30 Posts : 2448
Subject: Rabia Al Basri/Al Adaweyya (The most famous female Sufi "saint") Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:45 am
Rabia Al Basri/Al Adaweyya
Rābiʻa al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya (Arabic: رابعة العدوية القيسية) or simply Rābiʻa al-Basrī (Arabic: رابعة البصري) (717–801 C.E.) was a female Muslim Sufi saint.
She was born between 95 and 99 Hijri in Basra, Iraq. Much of her early life is narrated by Farid al-Din Attar, a later Sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources. Rabia herself did not leave any written works.
She was the fourth daughter of her family and therefore named Rabia, meaning "fourth". Although not born into slavery, her family were poor yet respected in the community.
Philosophy
She was the one who first set forth the doctrine of Divine Love[citation needed] and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets[citation needed]. The definitive work on her life and writing was a small treatise (written as a Master's Thesis) over 50 years ago by Margaret Smith .
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. When asked by Sheikh Hasan al-Basrihow she discovered the secret, she responded by stating:
"You know of the how, but I know of the how-less."
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.
While she apparently received many marriage offers (including a proposal from Hasan al-Basri himself), she 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 passionate against all forms of it. She even refused a slave later in life, despite her heightened spiritual status.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabia_Basri
Among the poems attributed to her:
"Your hope in my heart is the rarest treasure. Your Name on my tongue is the sweetest word. My choicest hours Are the hours I spend with You. O Allah! I can't live in this world Without remembering You. How can I endure the next world Without seeing Your face? I am a stranger in Your country. And lonely among Your worshippers: This is the substance of my complaint."
-- Rabia al-Basri
Anecdote:
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 God. I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of God."
It is said that she used to say to Allah what means:
"If I seek you Paradise, deprive me from it. And if I fear your Hell, plunge me in it."
Her actions were not driven by hope of this nor fear of that. Her ultimate goal was Allah Himself and His complacency.
Here is a song from a film about her life sung by Um Kulthum, the most Egyptian singer. The song represents her last hours on her death bed with angels imagined to come and escort her sould to heaven. She returns a young woman again. The old man in the video recites the ayat:
[89:27] ‘O soul at peace!
[89:28] Return to your Lord, pleased, pleasing.
[89:29] Then enter among My servants!
[89:30] And enter My Paradise!’
Part of the song:
"Complacency and light, And the Huri young girls, And love surrounds ... ...
It is time for the stranger to find her refuge ... Her approaching return is the anchor for salvation ... "
Rabia Al Basri/Al Adaweyya (The most famous female Sufi "saint")
Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:45 am