Philosophy
She was the one who first set forth the doctrine of Divine Love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets.
Much of the poetry that is attributed to her is of unknown origin. After a life of hardship, she spontaneously achieved a state of self-realization. When asked by Sheikh Hasan al-Basri how she discovered the secret, she responded by stating:
"You know of the how, but I know of the how-less."
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.
While she apparently received many marriage offers (including a proposal from Hasan al-Basri himself), she remained celibate and died of old age, an ascetic, her only care from the disciples who followed her. She was the first in a long line of female Sufi mystics.
It is also possible that she helped further integrate Islamic slaves into Muslim society. Rabi'a was passionate against all forms of slavery. She refused a slave later in life.
Read more about this topic: Rabia Basri
Famous quotes containing the word philosophy:
“And new Philosophy calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th’earth, and no mans wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“My position is a naturalistic one; I see philosophy not as an a priori propaedeutic or groundwork for science, but as continuous with science. I see philosophy and science as in the same boat—a boat which, to revert to Neurath’s figure as I so often do, we can rebuild only at sea while staying afloat in it. There is no external vantage point, no first philosophy.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“At the very moment when someone is beginning to take philosophy seriously, the whole world believes the opposite.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)