Rabia Basri

{{Infobox scholar

| image = Rabia al-Adawiyya.jpg

| caption = Depiction of Rabi{{hamza}}a grinding grain from a Persian dictionary

| name = Rābi{{hamza}}a al-{{hamza}}Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya

| birth_date = between 714 and 718 CE (?)

| death_date = 801 CE (?)

| main_interests = Sufism, asceticism, divine love

| era = {{plainlist|

Islamic Golden Age
(Umayyad and Abbasid era)}}

| notable_ideas = Divine love

| influences = Hasan of Basra

}}

Rābi{{hamza}}a al-{{hamza}}Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya ({{langx|ar|رابعة العدوية القيسية}}; {{circa|716}}{{snd}}801 CE){{cite book|author=Margaret Smith|title=Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. 8, "Rābi{{hamza}}a al-{{hamza}}Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya"|year=1995|publisher=Brill|pages=354–56}} or Rabia Basri was a poet, one of the earliest Sufi mystics and an influential religious figure from Iraq.{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Margaret|title=Rabi'a The Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|page=252|isbn=9781108015912|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqYDbBFAcB0C&q=rabia+the+mystic}} She is regarded as one of the three preeminent Qalandars of the world.

Biography

Very little is known about the life of Rabiʿa, notes Rkia Elaroui Cornell.

{{quote|What historical information can be ascertained from the earliest sources on Rabi‘a? As stated above, there is very little except to confirm that a Muslim woman ascetic and teacher named Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya or Rabi‘a al-Qaysiyya (the name ‘Adawiyya refers to her clan and the name Qaysiyya refers to her tribe) lived in or around the city of Basra in southern Iraq in the eighth century CE. [...] The commonly accepted birth date of 717 CE and death date of 801 CE come from a much later period and the ultimate source of these dates is unclear.{{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Rkia Elaroui |title=Rabi'a From Narrative to Myth: The Many Faces of Islam's Most Famous Woman Saint, Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya |date=2019 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-78607-522-2 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XB-9DwAAQBAJ |language=en}}}}

Cornell further notes that she was mentioned by two early Basran authors. "Because of this, they were familiar with her reputation. This local reputation is the best empirical evidence we have that Rabi‘a actually existed." She also writes, "To date, no written body of work has been linked conclusively to Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya."

Despite this, narratives about Rabiʿa grew over the centuries, and a considerable hagiography developed. Attar of Nishapur, a Sufi saint and poet who lived some four centuries later, recounted a now-famous story of her early life.{{Cite book|title=Windows on the House of Islam|last=a-Ra'uf al-Munawi|first='Abu|publisher=University of California|year=1998|location=Berkeley, CA|pages= [https://archive.org/details/RabiaFromNarrativeToMyth/page/n132/mode/1up 132]–33|editor-last=Renard|editor-first=John}} Many of her hagiographies depict her using literary or philosophical tropes where she, like her Christian counterparts, embodied idealized religious individuals.

Philosophy and religious contributions

Often noted as having been the single most famous women in Islam, Rabiʿa was renowned for her high virtue and piety. A devoted ascetic, when asked why she performed a thousand ritual prostrations both during the day and at night, she is said to have 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.'"

Rabiʿa was described as being intense in her self-denial and devotion to God. Explaining her refusal to lift her head toward the heavens (towards God) as an act of modesty, she's noted as having said: "Were the world the possession of a single man, it would not make him rich ... because it is passing away."

According to Sufi accounts, she was the first to set forth the doctrine of divine love known as IshqMargaret Smith, Rabi'a The Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam, Cambridge Library Collection, 1928. and is widely considered as being the most important of the early renunciants, a form of piety that would eventually be labelled Sufism.{{cite book|last=Hanif|first=N.|title=Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: Central Asia and Middle East|publisher=Sarup & Sons|year=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Y7JInpQL0x8C/page/n120 108]–10|isbn=9788176252669|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Y7JInpQL0x8C}}

Poetry and stories

Much of the poetry attributed to her is of unknown origin. There is no evidence in the historical archive that Rabia ever met Hasan al-Basri; however, the following stories, which first appeared in Attar of Nishapur's Tazkirat al-Awliya, is a common trope in the modern period:Cornell, Rabi'a, 148n2. After a life of hardship, she spontaneously achieved a state of self-realization. When asked by Hasan al-Basri how she discovered the secret, she responded by stating "you know of the how, but I know of the how-less."Farid al-Din Attar, Rabe'a [sic] al-Adawiya, from Muslim Saints and Mystics, trans. A.J. Arberry, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.

One of the many stories 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.Barbara Lois Helms, Rabi'a as Mystic, Muslim and Woman

Biographer Rkia Elaroui Cornell discovered four main characterizations of Rabia: Rabia the Teacher, Rabia the Ascetic, Rabia the Lover, and Rabia the Sufi.Cornell, Rabi'a, 10, 28-29.

= Asceticism =

Rabia is often described as being an ascetic, where "the ascetic attains the otherworldly not by rejecting the world but by treating it as unimportant. The ascetic avoids the World not because it is evil per se but because it is a distraction from God."Cornell, Rabi'a, 153.

Legacy

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 saw her I saw myself as bankrupt and Rabi'a as truly sincere."{{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Leila |title=Women and Gender in Islam |publisher=Yale University |year=1992 |page=96}}

She decided to stay celibate in order to live life unlike other Muslim women of her time, and devote herself completely to God. Among her most notable qualities besides her devotion to God were her humility and celibacy. Living alone with divine love, she is adored by many for her religious passion and the example she set for the growing Muslim population. However, her 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, Rabia's story and poetry remain an inspiration to women and Muslim people today.{{Citation |title=Introduction: Is There a 'New Middle East'? |date=2013-11-05 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315037493-3 |work=Central Asia Meets the Middle East |pages=15–36 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315037493-3 |isbn=978-1-315-03749-3 |access-date=2022-12-11}}{{Cite book |last=Cornell |first=Rkia Elaroui |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1035135590 |title=Rabi'a from narrative to myth the many faces of Islam's most famous woman saint, Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-78607-521-5 |location=London |oclc=1035135590}}

In popular culture

The life of Rabia has been the subject of several motion pictures of 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.{{Cite book |last=Dönmez-Colin |first=Gönül |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOtJAgAAQBAJ&dq=Rabia+%281973%29+film&pg=PA112 |title=The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema |date=2013-12-04 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-93726-5 |language=en}}

Rabia, İlk Kadın Evliya (Rabia, The First Woman Saint) is another Turkish film on Rabia. It was also released in 1973 and was directed by Süreyya Duru, starring Hülya Koçyiğit.

The Indonesian song "Jika Surga dan Neraka Tak Pernah Ada" sung by Ahmad Dhani and Chrisye on their 2004 album Senyawa, is based on Rabia's quotes{{Cite book |last=Hirshfield |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F521AAAAIAAJ |title=Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women |date=1994 |publisher=HarperCollins Pub. |isbn=978-0-06-016987-9 |language=en}} about worshipping God out of love, not out of fear of punishment or desire for a reward.{{Cite book |last=Wahyudi |first=Agus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=acBMvw9pnW8C |title=Makrifat Cinta Ahmad Dhani |date=2010 |publisher=Penerbit Narasi |isbn=978-979-16821-0-7 |language=id}}