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Saint Rabia of Basra
Rabia, depicted in an Islamic miniature
Mystic and Virgin
Born	713-717 C.E. Basra
Died	801 C.E. Mount of Olives
Honored in	Islam
Influences	Mary
Influenced	Other saints in Basra
Tradition/Genre	Ascetic

Rābiʻa al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya (Arabic: رابعة العدوية القيسية‎) or simply Rābiʿah al-Baṣrī (Arabic: رابعة البصري‎) (717–801 C.E.) was a female Muslim saint and Sufi mystic.

Life[link]

She was born between 95 and 99 Hijri in Basra, Iraq which is ~715 Julian . 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 was poor yet respected in the community.

According to Farid al-Din Attar, Rabia's parents were so poor that there was no oil in house to light a lamp, nor a cloth even 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 the Creator. He pretended to go to the neighbor's door and returned home empty-handed.

In the 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'".

Rabia's father got up and went straight to the Amir with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. The Amir was delighted on receiving the message, knowing that he was in the eyes of Muhammad. He distributed 1000 dinars to the poor and joyously paid 400 dinars to Rabia's father. The Amir then asked Rabia's father to come to him whenever he required anything, as the Amir would benefit very much by the visit of such a soul dear to the Lord.

After the death of her father a famine overtook Basra and Rabia parted from her sisters. Legend has it that she was accompanying a caravan, which fell into the hands of robbers. The chief of the robbers took Rabia captive, and sold her in the market as a slave. The new master of Rabia used to take hard service from her.

She would pass the whole night in prayer, after she had finished her household jobs. She spent many of her days observing fast.

Once the master of the house got up in the middle of the night, and was attracted by the voice in which Rabia was praying to her Lord. She was entreating in these terms:

"Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O light of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a slave of a human being?"

At once the master felt that it was sacrilegious to keep such a wali in his service. He decided to serve her instead. In the morning he called her and told her his decision; he would serve her and she should dwell there as the mistress of the house. If she insisted on leaving the house he was willing to free her from bondage.

She told him that she was willing to leave the house to carry on her worship in solitude. This the master granted and she left the house.

Rabia went into the desert to pray and became an ascetic. Her murshid was Hazrat Hassan Basri.

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.

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.

Rabia introduced the actual concept of Divine Love. She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God's own sake, not out of fear—as earlier Sufis had done.

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. For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions such as fear and hope were like veils—i.e. hindrances to the vision of God Himself.

She prayed: "O God! 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 was in her early to mid eighties^[1] when she died, having followed the mystic Way to the end. She believed she was continually united with her Beloved. As she told her Sufi friends, "My Beloved is always with me" She died in Jerusalem in 185 AH. See Zirkali, al-A`lam, vol. 3, p 10, col 1, who quotes ibn Khalikan as his source.

Philosophy[link]

She was the one who first set forth the doctrine of Divine Love^[2] and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets^{[citation needed]}.

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-Basri how she discovered the secret, she responded by stating:

"You know of the how, but I know of the how-less." ^[3]

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 refused a slave later in life. ^[4]

Anecdotes[link]

• 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."
  • In his Life of St Louis, Jean de Joinville reports this story of a woman, but no name or religious affiliation is given to the woman, and the report appears to be contemporary (when in fact Joinville lived three centuries after Rabia).

• At one occasion she was asked if she hated Satan. Rabia replied: "My love to God has so possessed me that no place remains for loving or hating any save Him."

• When Rabia would not come to attend the sermons of Hasan Basri, he would deliver no discourse that day. People in the audience asked him why he did that. He replied: "The syrup that is held by the vessels meant for the elephants cannot be contained in the vessels meant for the ants."

• Once Rabia was on her way to Makka, and when half-way there she saw the Ka'ba coming to meet her. She said, "It is the Lord of the house whom I need, what have I to do with the house? I need to meet with Him Who said, 'Who approaches Me by a span's length I will approach him by the length of a cubit.' The Ka'ba which I see has no power over me; what joy does the beauty of the Ka'ba bring to me?"

At the same time the great Ibrahim bin Adham arrived at the Ka'ba, but he did not see it. He had spent fourteen years making his way to the Ka'ba, because in every place of prayer he performed two rakats.

Hazrat Ibrahim bin Adham said, "Alas! What has happened? It maybe that some injury has overtaken my eyes." An unseen voice said to him, "No harm has befallen your eyes, but the Ka'ba has gone to meet a woman, who is approaching this place." Ibrahim Adham responded, "O indeed, who is this?" He ran and saw Rabia arriving, and that the Ka'ba was back in its own place. When Ibrahim saw that, he said, "O Rabia, what is this disturbance and trouble and burden which you have brought into the world?"

She replied, "I have not brought disturbance into the world. It is you who have disturbed the world, because you delayed fourteen years in arriving at the Ka'ba." He said, "Yes I have spent fourteen years in crossing the desert (because I was engaged) in prayer." Rabia said, "You traversed it in ritual prayer (Salat) but with personal supplication." Then, having performed the pilgrimage, she returned to Basra and occupied herself with works of devotion.

References[link]

4. Stage Play: Rabia, written by Indian Playwright Danish Iqbal, this Brechtian Play presents life and times of Rabia Basri in today's perspective for a universal audience hungry for spiritual solace and mystical outlook.

External links[link]

• Sufimaster.org - Teachings

v t e Sufism and Tariqa Ideas Qutb Wali Abdal Fakir Dervish Tazkiah Baqaa Fanaa Haal Keramat Haqiqa Ihsan Irfan Kashf Lataif Manzil Marifa Nafs Noor Sufi cosmology Sufi metaphysics Sufi philosophy Sufi poetry Sufi psychology Sulook Yaqeen Silsila Practices Anasheed Dhikr Haḍra Muraqaba Qawwali Sama Whirling Ziyarat Sufi orders Azeemia Akbarī Alians Ba 'Alawī Bayramī Bektashī Chishtī Galibī Gulshanī Ḥurūfī Idrīsī Jelvetī Jerrahī Khalwatī Kubrāwī Madarī Malāmatī Mawlāwī Mourīdī Naqshbandī Naqshbandi Uwaisī Khalidiyya Nasuhī Ni'matullāhī Nuqtawī Qadirī Qalāndārī Rifa'ī Safāvī Shadhilī Suhrawardī Sunbulī Tijanī Ussakī Uwaisī Zahedī Notable early Sufi saints and mystics Abdul-Qadir Gilanī Abul-Khayr Ahmad Ghazālī Ahmed Yasāvī Al-Ghazālī Al-Hallaj al-Misrī Al-Qāsim al-Qunawī Amīr Kulal Ardabilī Ata Allah Attar Balım Sultan Baha ūd-Dīn Naqshband Bande Nawāz Baqī Billah Bastamī Bhita'ī Bulleh Shah Shah Waliullah Dehlāvī Farīd ūd-Dīn Fozail Gālib Gharīb Nawāz Ghujdawanī Ghulam Farīd Sheik Edebali Gül Baba Hajji Bayram Hajji Bektash Hazrat Mai Safoora Qadiriyya Haddad Hamadānī Hansvī Harabatī Baba Hasan Basri Mahmud Hudayī Hujwirī ibn ʿArabī Jābir ibn Hayyān Jahangasht Jamī Jan-e-Jānāān Jazoulī Junayd Baġdādī Kākī Kaliyarī Karkhī Kharaqanī Kubrā Nāimī Najib al-Suhrawardī Nasīmī Mansur Al-Hallaj Ni'matullāh Nizām ūd-Dīn Nurī Otman Baba Pir Sultan Qutb ūd-Dīn Haydār Rabbānī Rabia Basri Razī Rifa'ī Rukn-e-Alam Rūmī Ibrahim ibn Adham Saadī Salman al-Farisī Sanai Mevlana Halid-i Bagdadi Sarı Saltuk Semnanī Shadhilī Shahāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī Shams Tabrizī Shiblī Shirazī Sultan Walad Surkh Bukhari Taj al-Dīn Gilanī Umar al-Suhrawardī Uwais al-Qarni Yunus Emre Magtymguly Pyragy Zakariya Zarruq Notable modern Sufi saints Auliya Azeemi Nagpuri Meher Ali Sheikh Muhammad Uthman Sirajuddin Qadeer Piya Muhammad Maliki Gohar Shahi Tahir ul-Qadri Tahir Allauddin Taqi Usmani Abdal Hakim Murad Nazim Al-Haqqani Hisham Kabbani Nuh Keller Nooruddeen Durkee Abdalqadir as-Sufi Zaheen Ghulam Mustafa Reshad Feild Ahmad al-Alawi Ashraf Ali Thanvi Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri Omar Shah Haeri Raza Khan Syed Shujaat Pir Zulfiqar Abdullah Naqshbandi Sufi Barkat Ali Hafiz Qamaruddin Saheb Qibla Fultali Feisal Abdul Rauf Osman Nuri Topbaş Sufi studies Aguéli Almqvist Burckhardt Chittick Corbin Ernst Frager Guénon Hixon Lindbom Lings Nasr Schimmel Sells Shah Schuon Topics in Sufism Art Fiction History Music Poetry Shrines Texts Portal

Ibrahim ibn Adham إبراهيم بن أدهم)
A miniature depicting Sultan Ibrahim, son of Adham visited by angels, (c. 1760-70)
Mystic
Born	Balkh
Died	c. 782
Honored in	Islam
Major shrine	Sultan Ibrahim Ibn Adham Mosque, West Bank, Jerusalem
Influences	Sufism
Tradition/Genre	Ascetic Sufism (Chisti)

Ibrahim ibn Adham (إبراهيم بن أدهم; c. 718 – c. 782 / AH c. 100– c. 165^[1]) is one of the most prominent of the early ascetic Sufi saints.

The story of his conversion is one of the most celebrated in Sufi legend, as that of a prince renouncing his throne and choosing asceticism closely echoing the legend of Gautama Buddha.^[2] Sufi tradition ascribes to Ibrahim countless acts of righteousness, and his humble lifestyle, which contrasted sharply with his early life as the king of Balkh (itself an earlier center of Buddhism). As recounted by Abu Nu'aym, Ibrahim emphasized the importance of stillness and meditation for asceticism. Rumi extensively described the legend of Ibrahim in his Masnavi. The most famous of Ibrahim's students is Shaqiq al-Balkhi (d. 810).

Life[link]

Ibráhím Adham sitting beneath a tree and receiving three angels bearing gifts.

According to Muslim tradition, Ibrahim's family was from Kufa but he was born in Balkh. While some writers traced his lineage back to Umar, the most famous family tree of his Sufi ancestors, most authors trace it to 'Abdullah, the brother of Ja'far al-Sadiq, and son of Muhammad al-Baqir, the grandson of Husayn ibn Ali.

Accounts of Ibrahim's life are recorded by medieval authors such as Ibn Asakir and Bukhari.

Ibrahim was born into the Arab community of Balkh as the king of the area in around 730 C.E, but he abandoned the throne to become an ascetic. He received a warning from God, through Khidr who appeared to him twice, and, abdicated his throne to take up the ascetic life in Syria. Having migrated in around 750 C.E, he chose to live the rest of his life in a semi-nomadic lifestyle, often travelling as far south as Ghazzah. Ibrahim abhorred begging and worked tirelessly for his livelihood, often grinding corn or tending orchards. In addition, he is also said to have engaged in military operations on the border with Byzantium, and his untimely death is supposed to have occurred on one of his naval expeditions.^[3]

His earliest spiritual master was a Christian monk named Simeon.^[4]

Ibrahim later recounted later his dialog with Simeon in his writings:^{[dubious – discuss]}

I visited him in his cell, and said to him, "Father Simeon, how long hast thou been here?" "For seventy years", he answered. "What is thy food?" I asked. "O Hanifite", he countered, "what hast caused thee to ask this?" "I wanted to know", I replied. Then he said. "Every night one chickpea." I said, "What stirs thee in thy heart so that this pea suffices thee?" He answered, "They come to me one day in every year and adorn my cell and process about it, so doing me reverence; and whenever my spirit wearies of worship, I remind it of that hour, and endure the labors of a year for the sake of an hour. Do thou, O Hanifite, endure the labor of a year for the glory of eternity."^[5]

As is often with the graves of saints, numerous locations have been placed as the burial place of Ibrahim ibn Adham. Ibn Asakir stated that Ebrahim was buried on a Byzantine island,^[6] while other sources state his tomb is in Tyre, in Baghdad, in the "city of the prophet Lot",^[7] in the "cave of Jeremiah" in Jerusalem and, finally, on the Syrian coast.

Historicity and literary reception[link]

The medieval narratives of the life of Ibrahim are semi-historical. Ibrahim may have been a historical Sufi of the 8th century, whose legend was embellished in later accounts. The Persian Memorial of the Saints by Attar,^[8] for example, remains one of the richest sources on Ebrahim's conversion and early life as the king of Balkh. It was through the Persian memorials that literature on Ibrahim passed into the legendary literature of India and Indonesia, where further unhistorical embellishments were added.

One of the main features of non-Arabic literature on Ibrahim is the feature of full-length biographies on the figure, as opposed to anecdotes centering around the main incidents in his life. Moreover, many of the non-Arabic accounts on Ebrahim's life preceded with a short account of the life of his father, Adham. One of the most famous of these biographies was written by Rumi, which was adapted^{[by whom?]} into Arabic form.^{[citation needed]} Other such biographies were written in Urdu and Malay, which laid the basis for short biographies in Javanese and Sundanese.

See also[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Abou Ben Adhem

• Fudhail Bin Iyadh
• Huzaifah Al-Mar’ashi
• Sultan Ibrahim Ibn Adham Mosque
• Beit Hanina

References[link]