Sunday, June 29, 2008

If I adore You out of fear of Hell, burn me in Hell!
If I adore you out of desire for Paradise,
Lock me out of Paradise.
But if I adore you for Yourself alone,
Do not deny to me Your eternal beauty. -Rabia al-Adawiyya( Rabia Basri)

The rest of us may not have the courage, the faith or the audacity to say something like this to God. But you have to the admire the woman that does; fall in love with her words, and even wish to feel the truth of her words as she does.

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 -(Rabia Basri when questioned why she was running with a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other)

For those who are scandalized by her words, I just wanted to say, shouldn't our ultimate goal be to worship our Creator, only for his sake? What is so wrong with her making such a statement to get that point across? We are the voyagers to God, people of different faiths worshiping our Creator, and Sustainer. Can any of us say that we worship God only because we love him?

Your thoughts?

4 comments:

Farnnay said...

My mom always tells me this one story of her death, or when she was being questioned by the angels, Munkar and Nakir..hmm i wonder if you know it..

Artistic Logic said...

CA, whats that story?? share it please.

n Rabia Basri is so cool!

Snake Charmer said...

i think thats a very interesting and important question. Now let me ask you one, do u think the muslim state of affairs would be in such disarray if we all worshipped Allah for the LOVE of Allah?

supreem said...

interesting. i've never heard of her before, but it really puts into perspective how faith should be expressed.