Rabia lived a life of extreme poverty. When once someone tried to
help her, she responded:‘I would be ashamed to ask for worldly things from
Him to whom the world belongs; how then could I ask for them from those
to whom it does not belong?’
She held that God should be loved and worshipped without any selfish
end in mind. She criticized those who worshipped God to secure His favours.
She went so far as to say: ‘I want to light a fire in Paradise and pour water in
Hell so that people no longer worship God for hope of Paradise or for fear of
Hell.’ She prayed:‘Omy Lord, if I worshipYou from fear of Hell, burn me in
Hell, and if I worshipYou out of hope of Paradise, exclude me from it, but if
I worshipYou forYour own sake, then do not withhold from meYour eternal
beauty.’
It is narrated that oncewhen somebody asked for Rabi’a’s hand inmarriage,
she replied: ‘He alone is entitled to marry who owns himself and has an
existence of his own. But I am neither the master of my body nor of my life.
They are the properties of my Lord. Ask Him for my hand in marriage.’
3
Ibrahim ibn Adham
Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 782) was born in a princely family of Balkh. One
day he went out on a hunting expedition and followed an antelope so far
into the forest that he lost his way. While in the wilderness, he heard a
strange voice crying: “Awake!Were you created for this?” He was so moved
by these words that he began to engage in heart-felt retrospect. Finally, he
came to the conclusion that his way of life was not in accordance with the
will of God and, therefore, resolved to change his ways. After spending a
3
Fariduddin Attar, Tadhkirat ul-Auliya, tr. Bankey Behari, Lahore 1962, p.. 26
