Rabia Basri

Rabi'a al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya
Depiction of Rabi'a grinding grain from a Persian dictionary
Born	A.D. between 714-718
Died	A.D. 801
Academic work
Main interests	Sufism, Asceticism, Divine love
Notable ideas	Divine love
Influenced	Hasan of Basra

Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya (Arabic: رابعة العدوية القيسية‎‎) (714/717/718 — 801 CE) was a Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. She is known in some parts of the world as Hazrat Bibi Rabia Basri, or simply Rabia Basri.

Said to have been born between 714 and 718 CE (95 and 98 Hijri) in Basra,Iraq of the Qays tribe. much of Rābiʻas early life has been recounted by Farid ud-Din Attar, a later Sufi saint and poet. She herself left no written works about her life. She was the fourth daughter of her family and therefore named Rābiʻa, meaning "fourth". Although not born into slavery, her family was poor yet respected in the community.

According to Fariduddin Attar, when Rābiʻa was born, her parents were so poor that there was no oil in house to light a lamp, nor even a cloth to wrap her with. Her mother asked her husband to borrow some oil from a neighbor, but he had resolved in his life never to ask for anything from anyone except God. He pretended to go to the neighbor's door and returned home empty-handed. At night Muhammad appeared to him in a dream and told him,

"Your newly born daughter is a favorite of the Lord, and shall lead many Muslims to the right path. You should approach the Amir of Basra and present him with a letter in which should be written this message: 'You offer Durood to the Holy Prophet one hundred times every night and four hundred times every Thursday night. However, since you failed to observe the rule last Thursday, as a penalty you must pay the bearer four hundred dinars'".

However, after the death of her father, famine overtook Basra. She parted from her sisters. Rabia went into the desert to pray and became an ascetic. She is often cited as being the queen of saintly women, and was known for her complete devotion in the form of "pure love of God." As an exemplar among others devoted to God, she provided a model of mutual love between God and His creation; her example is one in which the loving devotee on earth becomes one with the Beloved.