Rabi A Sufi: The First Female Sufi Power

Rabi’a is to have believed to be born 717 CE, 95-99 AH, or during the second half of 8th Century AD, she has no approximate date of birth. She is the first female Sufi saint as well as first true Sufi saint in the Sufi tradition (New World Encyclopedia) and first female poet in Islam (WISE Muslim Women). Sufism, according to Marcia Hermansen’s piece, Sufi Movements in America”, is not a sect of the Islamic religion like the Sunni and Shi’i because Sufi’s can be from either of those sects. This following believed that “their orientation derives from the Quran and the experience of the Prophet Muhammad and is at the heart or center of Islam” (119) and was practiced and associated with the arts; poetry, the arts, and music. (120). Rabi’a a Sufi

A lot of Rabia’s biographies are different depending on who’s written and it’s important to not, I believe, that her biography is a mix between reality and imagination. The pieces that line up throughout the different work is that she was born the fourth daughter of her fathers, to a poor yet respected family in Basra, now Iraq. Rabia’s father was asked by one of his daughters, to go to their neighbor and ask for oil since their oil had run out and they couldn’t afford to get more. The refused to do so and prayed that Allah would help

But, it’s also pointed out that that wasn’t possible considering Hasan was around much later and that it’s according to the New World Encyclopedia, they aren’t “chronologically compatible” and Heidi A. Ford, the writer of “Hierarchal Inversions, Divine Subversions: The Miracles of Rabi’a al-Adawiya”, also states that while there are accounts of Hasan and Rabia’s interactions, that it was “virtually impossible for them to have actually known” one another. Rabia would go on until her death to write, devote herself to God, and lead the life of an ascetic until 801 CE, poet, and was the Sufi leader to many loyal followers both men and women alike. Much of Rabia’s accomplishments aren’t documented by her and that was spoken of earlier in the paper, she had no writers during her time to have written them down for