Rabi'a HOW LONG WILL YOU KEEP POUNDING ON AN OPEN DOOR?"

Rabi'a, a freed slave and one of the first Sufi women poets from Basra, Iraq came across as a sensible and wise woman. I liked her no nonsense advice on ripping the veils of ignorance to see the real goal.

I carry a torch in one hand
And a bucket of water in the other:
With these things I am going to set fire to Heaven
And put out the flames of Hell
So that voyagers to God can rip the veils
And see the real goal.


Her words about taking full opportunity in this one life that we have been given was profound for me. So many of us wait for things to happen or fall in our laps and few realize that it is up to us to make ourselves happy.

Your life is the only opportunity that life can give you.
If you ignore it, if you waste it,
You will only turn to dust."

I also enjoyed her critique of teachers. "You call yourself a teacher: Therefore learn." Today lots of religious leaders sanction killing and harming others. They need to go back and relearn and reinterpret the scriptures.

And this from Razarumi blog here

Here are two poems by Rabi’a that are my old favourites translated by Charles Upton:

I have two ways of loving You

I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face.




Here is more information on her.

HOW LONG WILL YOU KEEP POUNDING ON AN OPEN DOOR?"
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Apart from tradition, all we know is that Rabi'a lived in Basra, Iraq, in the second half of the 700s (the second Islamic century), that she was probably a freed slave, and that she is considered one of the first of the Sufis (from the Arabic for "mystic"), those Muslims who emphasize an intensely personal relationship with Allah.

According to tradition, Rabi'a was born free, but sold into slavery at her parents' death. She was freed by a miracle, and, except for at least one pilgrimage to Mecca, lived all of her life in Basra as a celibate ascetic who debated with and taught the major religious figures of her time. We have descriptions of Khansa from scholars of the 800s and 900s, but most of the stories of her come down to us from the writings of Faridu d-Din 'Attar (d. c.1230). It is through 'Attar that we have Rabi'a's words; she herself left no written documents.

Basra, near the Persian Gulf, was an important military and trading site, both for sea trade and for overland routes from the Arabian peninsula. From its foundation in the mid-600s, it was a center of Islamic religious and intellectual thought. Hasan al-Basri (d.728) was the city's first major ascetic figure; since he was probably dead before Rabi'a reached adulthood, the anecdotes about their meetings may reflect conflict between their respective disciples. Rabi'a represents those who, while never going outside the bounds of Muslim orthodoxy, moved from an emphasis on ritual to a total concentration on Allah and identification with his will.