Rabia al-Adawiyya

ما المطلق؟ هل الله موجود؟

God is the Beloved, loved for His own sake

إله شخصييقوله صراحةً

Rabia left no writings and formulated no theology: what we know of her comes through sayings and verses gathered by later authors, from Ibn Abi l-Dunya and al-Makki to Attar, four centuries later. In those texts the Absolute is always a Thou: the Beloved spoken to at night, whom she asks to worship for His own sake, not in hope of paradise nor for fear of hell. The poem of the two loves, made canonical by al-Makki and al-Ghazali, distinguishes the love of desire, which turns her away from everything that is not God, from the love God deserves, in which He lifts the veils until He lets Himself be seen. There is no speculation about the divine essence: there is a personal, demanding and exclusive relationship, in which all praise returns to God.

من أنا؟ هل توجد ذات حقيقية؟

She did not theorise the self: she urged a sleeping soul to wake

لم يُبدِ رأيًا

Rabia left no writings, and among the sayings her biographers attribute to her there is no doctrine of the self. The closest thing is her exhortations to the soul. According to the oldest ascetic accounts, she kept vigil at night and at dawn reproached herself for having slept: she asked her soul how long it would sleep, for soon it would sleep a sleep from which it would wake only on the Day of Resurrection. That soul is the soul of Islam: created, responsible and called to account. What the later tradition adds is a demand for sincerity: to strip worship of all self-interest, not to worship for paradise or for fear of hell, and to deny any merit, for praise belongs to God alone. It is an ascesis of the self-interested self, not a metaphysics of the subject.

لماذا نتألّم؟

The only true pain is not knowing whether God is pleased

الانفصال عن اللهيُستنتج من تعاليمه

Rabia did not write, and what is attributed to her on pain consists of transmitted scenes. In the oldest she corrects Sufyan al-Thawri when he laments his sadness: he should not lie, but rather say how little sadness he has. The only worthy grief is that of one who knows herself far from God, and hardly anyone feels it enough. Attar, four centuries later, tells that as a child and a slave she fell and broke her wrist, and that in her prayer she said she did not grieve over being orphaned, enslaved or wounded, but only over not knowing whether God was pleased with her. Outward suffering is received with contentment (rida); what truly wounds is the Beloved's distance, and the only thing that matters is His good pleasure.

ماذا يحدث بعد الموت؟

Resurrection and judgement, yes; but God is not loved for paradise

الحياة الأبدية والقيامةيقوله صراحةً

Rabia did not write, but the sayings her biographers attribute to her take Islamic eschatology for granted. In the oldest ascetic accounts she reproaches herself for having slept and warns her soul that soon it will sleep a sleep from which it will wake only on the Day of Resurrection. What is distinctive of the tradition bearing her name is not denying the hereafter but displacing it: the prayer recorded by Attar asks God to burn her in hell if she worships Him from fear, to shut paradise to her if she worships Him from hope, and not to deny her His eternal beauty if she worships Him for Himself. The paradise desired is not a garden but the vision of the Beloved. The image of a Rabia who wants to burn paradise and quench hell is much later.

كيف يُبلَغ التحرّر أو الخلاص؟

To love God expecting nothing, and to know that returning is His gift

بالتعبّد والتسليميقوله صراحةً

The tradition bearing Rabia's name, transmitted by her biographers and not written by her, makes disinterested love the path. Worshipping God from fear of hell or desire for paradise is still trading with Him; the only thing that saves is to love Him for Himself. Her poem of the two loves describes that surrender: a love that turns away from all that is not God and another in which He lifts the veils. But the surrender is not her own merit. The manuals of al-Sulami and al-Qushayri attribute to her a reply to someone who asked whether God would accept his repentance: no, unless He first turns towards you; if He turns towards you, you will turn towards Him. Love is the way; grace, its source.

هل نحتاج إلى معلّم؟

With no known master, tradition shows her teaching the masters

لم يُبدِ رأيًا

No saying attributed to Rabia deals with the need for a master, and the sources know of none for her. On the contrary, the accounts show her correcting men of authority. In the oldest ascetic sources she rebukes Sufyan al-Thawri for boasting of his sadness; in Attar's Memorial of the Saints her dialogues with Hasan of Basra place her above the famous preacher, though chronology makes such meetings unlikely. What these scenes convey is the figure of a saint taught directly by God, whose authority springs from her sincerity and asceticism, not from a chain of initiation. It is not a doctrine about masters but the portrait of someone who depended on none.

هل العالم حقيقي؟

Come in to see the Creator instead of going out to look at creation

لم يُبدِ رأيًا

Rabia did not pronounce on the reality of the world, and nothing in the sayings attributed to her suggests she took it for an illusion. What they convey is an ascetic attitude: the world distracts. The early sources show her shutting the door on those who came to talk to her about worldly matters. Attar, much later, tells that one spring morning her servant invited her to come out and contemplate the works of God, and she answered that the servant should rather come in and contemplate the One who had made them. Creation is good, but whoever has known the Creator no longer needs to linger over it. It is a hierarchy of attention, not a metaphysics of the real.

ما الحب؟

Two loves: the love of desire and the love God deserves for Himself

الشوق والوصاليقوله صراحةً

The figure of Rabia has become the emblem of mystical love in Islam, though what survives are verses and sayings transmitted by others. In the poem of the two loves, the first is the love of desire, which keeps her occupied in remembering God and turns her away from everything else; the second is the love God deserves because He is worthy of it, in which He lifts the veils until He lets Himself be seen. In other verses she says she has made God the confidant of her heart: her body keeps company with whoever sits beside her, but the Beloved is her only intimate companion. And the prayer transmitted by Attar sums up the demand: to love God not for paradise nor from fear of hell, but for His eternal beauty.

هل نحن أحرار أم أن كل شيء مقدَّر؟

She did not debate freedom: she practised contentment with what God disposes

لم يُبدِ رأيًا

The question of free will, which divided the theologians of Basra in her time, does not appear in the sayings attributed to Rabia. What her biographers transmit is an attitude towards what happens: contentment (rida) with the divine will. According to the accounts, she did not ask God to free her from poverty or illness, because to desire anything other than what He wills would be to oppose her Beloved. Al-Qushayri and other manuals also attribute to her the idea that repentance itself is a gift: man turns towards God when God has first turned towards him. There is no theory of freedom in this, but a spirituality of surrender that leaves the initiative to God.

لماذا نتأمّل أو نصلّي؟

Keeping vigil at night alone with the Beloved, confidant of the heart

صداقة مع اللهيقوله صراحةً

The scenes transmitted about Rabia show her above all praying at night. The oldest ascetic sources tell that she kept vigil until dawn and reproached herself for every sleep as time stolen from God. Later tradition attributes to her night prayers in which, with the doors of kings closed and lovers lying together, she remains alone with her Beloved. Her verses say the same: she has made God the confidant of her heart, and while her body keeps visitors company, her heart converses with Him. Prayer is not for her a means of obtaining anything, not even paradise, but the very form of intimacy with God, an exclusive friendship that admits no third party.

هل يستطيع العقل أن يعرف الحقيقة القصوى؟

No word on reason: her authority did not come from learning

لم يُبدِ رأيًا

Rabia did not write, and among the sayings attributed to her there is no reflection on the powers or limits of reason. What the sources convey is an implicit contrast. In them Rabia appears alongside traditionists, ascetics and preachers of Basra, men of religious learning, and her authority comes not from study or argument but from her sincerity, her asceticism and the intensity of her love for God. When she corrects Sufyan al-Thawri she does not oppose an argument to him, but a truth about his heart. Later tradition made her an example of a knowledge of God that does not pass through the schools, but that is a reading by her biographers, not a doctrine of hers.

الانسحاب من العالم أم تغييره؟

Poverty, celibacy and a door shut to whoever spoke of the world

الانسحاب لكي نجديقوله صراحةً

The Rabia transmitted by the sources is a withdrawn ascetic. The oldest accounts show her shutting the door on those who came to talk of worldly matters and preferring conversation about God to any comfort. Later tradition, recorded by Attar, adds that she turned down marriage proposals from powerful and pious men because her heart was occupied, and that she accepted no gifts or help, not even from those who venerated her, so as to owe nothing to anyone but God. She lived, according to those sources, in the voluntary poverty of Basra. She preached no reforms and did not intervene in public life: her testimony is a life set apart, devoted to prayer and the love of God.