Rabi'a bint Isma'il al-'Adawiyya was born in Basra around 717 CE into a poor family, and endured harsh hardships in her youth before devoting herself entirely to worship and ascetic seclusion.
She became known for her teaching of pure divine love, calling for worshipping God out of love alone, not out of desire for paradise or fear of hellfire, laying an important theoretical foundation in the history of Islamic mysticism.
Legacy
Rabi'a died in Basra in 801 CE, and her sayings and ascetic stances have been preserved in works of Sufism and biography. She is still remembered as one of the founding figures of ethical mysticism in Islam.
