Rabia of Basra

Rabe’a Basri, born in humble circumstances and sold into slavery as a child, later settled in Basra where she attained great fame as a saint and a preacher and was highly esteemed by many of her pious contemporaries. The date of her death is given variously as 135 (752) and 185 (801). To her, a lifelong celibate, is attributed a large share in the introduction into Islamic mysticism of the theme of Divine love. Her tomb used to be pointed out near Jerusalem.

Rabe’a, her birth and early life

If anyone says, “Why have you included Rabe’a in the
rank of men?” my answer is, that the Prophet himself
said, “God does not regard your outward forms.” The
root of the matter is not form, but intention, as the
Prophet said, “Mankind will be raised up according to
their intentions.” Moreover, if it is proper to derive
two-thirds of our religion from A’esha, surely it is permissible
to take religious instruction from a handmaid
of A’esha. When a woman becomes a “man” in the
path of God, she is a man and one cannot any more call
her a woman.

The night when Rabe’a came to earth, there was
nothing whatsoever in her father’s house; for her father
lived in very poor circumstances. He did not possess
even one drop of oil to anoint her navel; there was no
lamp, and not a rag to swaddle her in. He already had
three daughters, and Rabe’a was his fourth; that is why
she was called by that name.

“Go to neighbour So-and-so and beg for a drop of
oil, so that I can light the lamp,” his wife said to him.

Now the man had entered into a covenant that he
would never ask any mortal for anything. So he went
out and just laid his hand on the neighbour’s door, and
returned.

“They will not open the door,” he reported.

The poor woman wept bitterly. In that anxious state
the man placed his head on his knees and went to sleep.
He dreamed that he saw the Prophet.

“Be not sorrowful,” the Prophet bade him. “The
girl child who has just come to earth is a queen
among women, who shall be the intercessor for seventy
thousand of my community Tomorrow,” the
Prophet continued, “go to Isa-e Zadan the governor
of Basra. Write on a piece of paper to the following
effect. ‘Every night you send upon me a hundred
blessings, an on Friday night four hundred. Last night
was Friday night, and you forgot me. In expiation for
that, give this man four hundred dinars lawfully
acquired.’”

Rabe’a’s father on awaking burst into tears. He rose
up and wrote as the Prophet had bidden him, and sent
the message to the governor by the hand of a chamberlain.

“Give two thousand dinars to the poor,” the governor
commanded when he saw the missive, “as a
thanksgiving for the Master remembering me. Give
four hundred dinars also to the shaikh, and tell him, ‘I
wish you to come to me so that I may see you. But I do
not hold it proper for a man like you to come to me. I
would rather come and rub my beard in you threshold.
However, I adjure you by God, whatever you may
need, pray let me know.’”

The man took the gold and purchased all that was
necessary

When Rabe’a had become a little older, and her
mother and father were dead, a famine came upon
Basra, and her sisters were scattered. Rabe’a ventured
out and was seen by a wicked man who seized her and
then sold her for six dirhams. He purchaser put her to
hard labour.

One day she was passing along the road when a
stranger approached. Rabe’a fled. As she ran, she fell
headlong and her hand was dislocated.

“Lord God,” she cried, bowing her face to the ground,
“I am a stranger, orphaned of mother and father, a helprabe‘
a al-adawiya 31
less prisoner fallen into captivity, my hand broken. Yet
for all this I do not grieve; all I need is Thy good pleasure,
to know whether Thou art well-pleased or no.”

“Do not grieve,” she heard a voice say. “Tomorrow
a station shall be thine such that the cherubim in heaven
will envy thee.”

So Rabe’a returned to her master’s house. By day she
continually fasted and served God, and by night she
worshipped standing until day. One night her master
awoke from sleep and, looking through the window of
his apartment, saw Rabe’a bowing prostrate and praying.

“O God, Thou knowest that the desire of my heart
is in conformity with Thy command, and that the light
of my eye is in serving Thy court. If the affair lay with
me, I would not rest one hour from serving Thee, but
Thou Thyself hast set me under the hand of a creature.”

Such was her litany. Her master perceived a lantern
suspended without any chain above her head, the light
whereof filled the whole house. Seeing this, he was
afraid. Rising up he returned to his bedroom and sat
pondering till dawn. When day broke he summoned
Rabe’a, was gentle with her and set her free.

“Give me permission to depart,” Rabe’a said.

He gave her leave, and she left the house and went
into the desert. From the desert she proceeded to a hermitage
where she served God for a while. Then she
determined to perform the pilgrimage, and set her face
towards the desert. She bound her bundle on an ass. In
the heart of the desert the ass died.

“Let us carry your load,” the men in the party said.

“You go on,” she replied. “I have not come putting
my trust in you.”

So the men departed, and Rabe’a remained alone.

“O God,” she cried, lifting her head, “do kings so
treat a woman who is a stranger and powerless? Thou
hast invited me unto Thy house, then in the midst of
the way Thou hast suffered my ass to die, leaving me
alone in the desert.”

Hardly had she completed this orison when her ass
stirred and rose up. Rabe’a placed her load on its back,
and continued on her way. (The narrator of this story
reports that some while afterwards he saw that little
donkey being sold in the market.) She travelled on
through the desert for some days, then she halted.

“O God,” she cried, “my heart is weary. Whither am
I going? I a lump of clay, and Thy house a stone! I need
Thee here.”

God spoke unmediated in her heart.

“Rabe’a, thou art faring in the life-blood of eighteen
thousand worlds. Hast thou not seen how Moses
prayed for the vision of Me? And I cast a few motes of
revelation upon the mountain, and the mountain shivered
into forty pieces. Be content here with My name!”