Friday, July 03, 2015
Rabia--poems
In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?
**************
She prayed: "O God! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship You for Your Own sake,
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.”
Rabia was born around 713-717 in Basra, Iraq. She was the fourth daughter of the household and thus her name means "fourth." She was one of the earliest of the Sufi women saints and is said to have created the doctrine of Divine Love. She lived for years in the desert as an ascetic devotee. She is also described as being "Self Realized."
