Rabia of Basra

Rābiʻa is said to have been born between 714 and 718 CE (95 and 98 Hijri) in Basra,^[1][4] Iraq, of the Qays tribe.^[5] Farid ud-Din Attar, a later Sufi saint and poet, recounted much of her early life.

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

According to Fariduddin Attar, whose account is more myth than a narrative of a historical Rābiʿa:^[6] when Rābiʻa was born, her parents were so poor that there was no oil in the 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'".

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,^[7] and was known for her complete devotion as "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.^[7]

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".^[8]

Rābiʻa died in her 80s^[9] in Basra in 185 AH/801 CE, where her tomb was shown outside the city.^[1] However, Rābiʿa's main modern biographer, Rika Elaroui Cornell, says the datings of Rābiʿa's birth and death "come from a much later period and the ultimate source of these dates is unclear."^[10] Her life records stem mainly from historical narratives. Rabi’a is thought of today as a saint because of her contributions to Sufism and her devotion to God. In Islamic literature, oral words are seen as valid as written words are. Additionally, with surviving works by other authors confirming her story, she was both a real and impactful Sufi.

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Basra

Basra

Basra is a city in southern Iraq located on the Shatt al-Arab in the Arabian Peninsula. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is handled at the port of Umm Qasr. However, there is ongoing construction of Grand Faw Port on the coast of Basra, which is considered a national project for Iraq and will become one of the largest ports in the world and the largest in the Middle East, in addition, the port will strengthen Iraq’s geopolitical position in the region and the world. Furthermore, Iraq is planning to establish large naval base in the Faw peninsula.

Iraq

Iraq

Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Persians and Shabakis with similarly diverse geography and wildlife. The majority of the country's 40 million residents are Muslims – the notable other faiths are Christianity, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish; others also recognised in specific regions are Suret (Assyrian), Turkish and Armenian.

Qays

Qays

Qays ʿAylān, often referred to simply as Qays were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe does not appear to have functioned as a unit in the pre-Islamic era (pre-630). However, by the early Umayyad period (661-750), its constituent tribes consolidated into one of the main tribo-political factions of the caliphate.

Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets within Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief.

Famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th century, Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe, suffered the greatest number of fatalities. Deaths caused by famine declined sharply beginning in the 1970s, with numbers falling further since 2000. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent in the world by famine.

Unconditional love

Unconditional love

Unconditional love is known as affection without any limitations, or love without conditions. This term is sometimes associated with other terms such as true altruism or complete love. Each area of expertise has a certain way of describing unconditional love, but most will agree that it is that type of love which has no bounds and is unchanging.

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'".^[5]

She was intense in her self-denial and devotion to God. She never claimed to have achieved unity with Him; instead, she dedicated her life to getting closer to God.^[11] 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."^[5]

She was the one who first set forth the doctrine of Divine Love known as Ishq-e-Haqeeqi^[12] and is widely considered being the most important of the early renunciant, one mode of piety that would eventually become labeled as Sufism.^[3]

Contrary to the name, Rabi’a was never appointed a saint because Muslims do not have such titles. However, through years of reinterpretation and westernization, Rabi’a has been donned with the title.

Rabi’a’s teachings had a lasting impact on the religious world, as noted by many religious scholars. One non-Sufi account by Abu ‘Uthman al-Jahiz referred to her as highly respected, and someone people went to for guidance. Another reference by Abi Tahir Tayfur of Bhagdad remembers her always having something important to say.

She was well known for having a powerful love for God and devoting her life to him. She was beloved not only by many for her spiritual guidance but for her ethics as well. She pushed the idea of loving God for being God, not for reward or anything.

Among her most notable qualities besides her devotion to God are her humility and celibacy. Living alone and in love with only God, she is idolized by many for her religious passion and the example she set for the growing Muslim population. She is also said to be the founder of Islamic love mysticism.

Much of the poetry that is attributed to her is of unknown origin. There is no evidence in the historical archive that Rābiʿa ever met Hasan al-Basri; however the following myth, first appearing in Fariduddin Attar's Tadhkirat al-Awliya`, is a common trope in the modern period:^[13] After a life of hardship, she spontaneously achieved a state of self-realization. She was chosen by Allah to perform divine miracles. 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."^[14]

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.^[11]

Rābiʿa's main modern biographer, Rika Elaroui Cornell, discovered four main tropes of mythologization, Rābiʿa the Teacher, Rābiʿa the Ascetic, Rābiʿa the Lover, and Rābiʿa the Sufi.^[15]

Rābiʿa the Ascetic

Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya is often mythologized as an essential ascetic, where "the ascetic attains the Nonworld not by rejecting the World but by treating it as unimportant. The essential ascetic avoids the World not because it is evil per se but because it is a distraction from God."^[16]

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Poetry

Poetry

Poetry, also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, a prosaic ostensible meaning. A poem is a literary composition, written by a poet, using this principle.

Hasan al-Basri

Hasan al-Basri

Abu Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as Hasan of Basra for short, or as Hasan al-Basri, was an early Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, judge, and mystic. Born in Medina in 642, Hasan belonged to the second generation of Muslims, all of whom would subsequently be referred to as the tābiʿūn in Sunni Islamic piety. In fact, Hasan rose to become one of "the most celebrated" of the tābiʿūn, enjoying an "acclaimed scholarly career and an even more remarkable posthumous legacy in Islamic scholarship."

Self-realization

Self-realization

Self-realization is an term used in western psychology, philosophy, and spirituality; and in eastern Indian religions. In the western understanding, it is the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or personality". In the Indian understanding, self-realization is liberating knowledge of the true Self, either as the permanent undying Purusha or witness-consciousness, which is atman (essence), or as the absence (sunyata) of such a permanent Self.

Rabi’a was said to have a circle of disciples, including Maryam of Basra. Besides her disciples, she is regarded as a mentor to many emerging Muslims and guided people in their journey toward God and Sufi practices.

While nothing physical is left, her impact on the lives of the people around her can be seen in the stories still told about her. For someone whose physical existence is unproved, the fact that her name is still known and respected today speaks volumes.^[17]

Several aspects of Sufism 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]."^[18] However, she decided to stay celibate in order to leave her womanhood behind and devote herself completely to God.^[11]

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."^[19]

There are no artifacts found written by or about Rabi’a during her lifetime. While there are various poems and pieces of writing under her name, the legitimacy of their origin is highly debated. Since there are no primary sources confirming her existence or writing, historians rely on the literature of other religious philosophers that came after her time and who wrote about her legacy.

Because of the lack of eyewitness accounts and surviving evidence of her life, the “true” Rabi’a is unknown. However, Rabi’a’s importance and legacy remain prominent through tales of her life, modern references, and her standing in Muslim culture. While no physical evidence was found of her, Rabi’a’s story and poetry remain an inspiration to women and Muslim people today.^[20]

Rabi’a’s teachings and example are influential for people of her time and Sufis today. It helps narrate what Islam looked like throughout time and shows what influential roles women played in it.

Dilras Banu Begum (1622 – 1657) was the first wife and chief consort of Emperor Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor. She was given the posthumous title Rabia-ud-Daurani ("Rabia of the Age") in her honour.^[21][22]

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.^[23]

Rabia, İlk Kadın Evliya (Rabia, The First Woman Saint), another Turkish film on Rabia, also released in 1973 was directed by Süreyya Duru and starred by Hülya Koçyiğit.^[24]

Rabia's quote became song in Indonesia, called "Jika Surga dan Neraka tak pernah ada" sung by Ahmad Dhani and Chrisye in Senyawa Album 2004.

The final episode of the comedy show, The Good Place, refers to 8th century Sufi mystic poet Hazrat Bibi Rabia Basri, as one of the many worthies who gets into heaven.^[25]

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Dilras Banu Begum

Dilras Banu Begum

Dilras Banu Begum was the first wife and chief consort of Emperor Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor. She is also known by her posthumous title, Rabia-ud-Durrani. The Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad, which bears a striking resemblance to the Taj Mahal, was commissioned by her husband to act as her final resting place.

Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb

Muhi al-Din Muhammad, commonly known as Aurangzeb and by his regnal title Alamgir, was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling from July 1658 until his death in 1707. Under his emperorship, the Mughals reached their greatest extent with their territory spanning nearly the entirety of Indian subcontinent.

Osman F. Seden

Osman F. Seden

Osman Fahir Seden, usually credited as Osman F. Seden, was a Turkish film director, screenwriter and film producer.

Fatma Girik

Fatma Girik

Fatma Girik was a Turkish actress and politician. Together with Hülya Koçyiğit, Filiz Akın and Türkan Şoray, she was an icon for the golden age in Turkish cinematography and is regarded as one of the four most important actresses in Turkish cinema.

Hülya Koçyiğit

Hülya Koçyiğit

Hülya Koçyiğit is a Turkish actress. A prominent female lead in the Turkish cinema, she received numerous awards at international film festivals, including the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. Altogether, she has acted in some 180 films.

Ahmad Dhani

Ahmad Dhani

Ahmad Dhani Prasetyo, better known as Ahmad Dhani, Dhani Muhammad Prasetyo or Dhani S. Manaf, is an Indonesian musician. He was the frontman of Dewa 19 with his colleague Once Mekel as the co-lead singer, and Ahmad Band, and also a member of the inter-continental band The Rock. He is the owner and chairman of Republik Cinta Management.

Chrisye

Chrisye

Hajji Chrismansyah Rahadi, born Christian Rahadi, better known by his stage name Chrisye, was an Indonesian progressive pop singer and songwriter. In 2011, Rolling Stone Indonesia declared him the third-greatest Indonesian musician of all time.

The Good Place

The Good Place

The Good Place is an American fantasy comedy television series created by Michael Schur. It premiered on NBC on September 19, 2016, and concluded on January 30, 2020, after four seasons and 53 episodes.

Rabi‘a alMusma‘iyya

Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya

Rabi‘a al-Qaysiyya

(the name ‘Adawiyya refers to her clan, and the name Qaysiyya refers to her tribe)

Like any tale, small pieces of information can spiral and be elaborated upon by different people through the ages. While what we know about Rabi’a is few and far between, it is crucial to be mindful of the human exaggeration or modifications possibly made through the passage of time.