Rabia of Basra

Rabia lived in the 8th century in Basra, Persia. After a life of slavery and and deep suffering, she became a Sufi mystic and poet focusing her life and devotion on serving her true Beloved.


She was once asked how she attained such an enlightened state of being. She explained that she lived and served in the temple of her heart and that she took refuge in God. Here are some of her

beautiful poems filled with longing for Divine Love.

"Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.
My Beloved is alone with me there, always.
I have found nothing in all the worlds
That could match His love,
This love that harrows the sands of my desert.
If I come to die of desire
And my Beloved is still not satisfied,
I would live in eternal despair.

To abandon all that He has fashioned
And hold in the palm of my hand
Certain proof that He loves me---
That is the name and the goal of my search."

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"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? "