"Everyone who obeys, seeks intimacy." Rabe’a al-Adawiya -Part 5

LEARN TO LOVE YOUR LORD FROM THIS WOMEN SUFI SAINT Rabe’a al-Adawiya

Anecdote of Rabe’a - About Marriage

Hasan al-Basri is usually referred to as being one of the closest of the Beloveds of Allah around Rabi`a in her early life.


It is he who is recorded as being the person who said to Rabi`a,
"Do you desire for us to get married?"

To which she replied,
"The tie of marriage is for those who have being. But here being has disappeared for I have become as nothing to my self, and I exist only through Allah for
I belong wholly to Him, and I live in the shadow of His control. You must ask for my hand from Him, and not from me."

Hasan then replied, "How did you find this secret, Rabi`a?"
She answered him, "I lost all found things in Him."
Hasan then replied, "How did you come to know Him?"
She said, "You know of the how but I know of the howless."


For Rabia`s case was that she had heard the Voice of her Beloved Who was Allah and none other than He, and she had no need for any earthly husband because the only true marriage for her was with Allah Himself alone.

Like many of the ascetic sufis, Rabi`a made no separation in her love between man and woman if they lived for the Face of her Beloved God. Many people loved her and needed her and wanted to take from her something of the special Gift which she had been given from Allah. She had many followers who yearned to feed themselves from her Love which she gave to
all those whom she loved. Allah himself was her real Beloved but she kept company with her fellow beings, as she said,

"Everyone who obeys (and she meant by this the true lover) seeks intimacy."

Then she recited these lines:

"I have made You the Companion of my heart.
But my body is available to those who desire its company,
And my body is friendly toward its guest,
But the Beloved of my heart is the guest of my soul."

She never married nor did she have any children but as she, may Allah be pleased with her, said,

"My peace is in solitude but my Beloved is always with me. Whenever I witness His Beauty He is my prayer niche (mihrab); toward Him is my qibla. Oh Healer of souls, the heart feeds upon its desire and its striving towards Union with You has healed my soul. You are my Joy and my Life to Eternity. You were the Source of my life; from You came my ecstasy. I have separated myself from all created beings, for my hope is for Union with You; for that is the Goal of my searching."

Not only did Rabi`a never marry but she also never had a Shaykh to guide and instruct her. She received everything that she knew directly from Allah (the Most High) without the intermediary of any Shaykh.

She is often referred to as the first true Saint (waliya) of Islam and was praised, not because she in any way represented womankind, but because as someone said,

"When a woman walks in the Way of Allah like a man she cannot be called a woman."