Who is Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah? And what is your answer to her saying, "My Lord, I did not worship You out of hope for Your Paradise or fear of Your Fire, but I worship You because You are worthy of worship"?
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The questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner : How are you, our professor?
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah for the good. How are you?
The questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I am well, by the grace of Allah.
The Shaykh : How are you?
The questioner : Praise be to Allah.
The Shaykh : May you be even better.
The questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I am well, by the grace of Allah.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Our teacher, some of our sisters mentioned that there is a play in one of the schools about Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah. So, to be able to convince some of those who are putting on this play, yes, regarding Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah, I want to know how Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah ended, from the information you have, our teacher.
The Shaykh : In any case, Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah is considered one of the ascetic Sufis,
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : And there is no doubt that the people who will write and produce this play do not have knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence, especially the jurisprudence of the Book and the Sunnah. They will describe and portray her based on the narratives found in the books of the Sufis. She is counted among the great ascetics and Sufis, and the most famous thing narrated about her, regardless of whether what is narrated about her is true or not, because it is not possible to judge the truth of everything narrated regarding this Sufi woman and others like her, is that she used to say in her supplication to her Lord, "My Lord, I did not worship You out of hope for Your Paradise or fear of Your Fire, but I worship You because You are worthy of worship." This is beautiful poetic language that captivates the hearts of those who do not know what is permissible and what is not permissible in Islam. She says in her supplication to her Lord, "I did not worship You out of hope for Your Paradise or fear of Your Fire." This cannot come from a Muslim who fears Allah. Why? Because the Muslim who believes in Allah with true faith must have believed in all the attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) completely, as He described Himself in His Book or in the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Among these is that Allah is of immense generosity, and among these is that Allah is severe in punishment. So, one who knows Allah by these two attributes, along with the other attributes, that He is an Avenger, the Compeller, and that He is Generous, and so on, cannot imagine this believer when he worships Allah, that he does not worship Him out of hope for His bounty or fear of His punishment. This is impossible. Therefore, it came in the Noble Qur'an that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) described some of His chosen, righteous servants by saying (Mighty and Majestic): So how can one imagine a righteous woman, or one who is supposed to be righteous, saying, "I did not worship You out of hope for Your Paradise or fear of Your Fire," knowing that the greatest pleasure in Paradise is seeing Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in Paradise... So, one who does not want to see Allah in Paradise, this is among what is narrated about her in the books, and this will certainly be mentioned in the play referred to. And therefore, we do not encourage, as you know, plays in general, and plays that feature characters whose history is not known correctly in a way that agrees with Islam, the Book and the Sunnah. This is all I have.
The questioner : My teacher, for the sake of benefit, can we now say about Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah, did my teacher, did she die in a state of righteousness, or like other Sufis such as Ibn Arabi and others?
The Shaykh : No, we cannot judge any person regarding what they died upon. Allah knows best about them. So, there is no benefit for us in being certain that he died a believer or a disbeliever. Rather, the important thing is that the words narrated about this one or that one, or about this one or that one, are words that are not permissible to be said in Islam, and that is enough. So that the Muslim takes a lesson and stays away from them.
The questioner : Indeed, by Allah, may Allah reward you with good for us, and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The Shaykh : And to you, and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner : How are you, our professor?
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah for the good. How are you?
The questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I am well, by the grace of Allah.
The Shaykh : How are you?
The questioner : Praise be to Allah.
The Shaykh : May you be even better.
The questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I am well, by the grace of Allah.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Our teacher, some of our sisters mentioned that there is a play in one of the schools about Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah. So, to be able to convince some of those who are putting on this play, yes, regarding Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah, I want to know how Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah ended, from the information you have, our teacher.
The Shaykh : In any case, Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah is considered one of the ascetic Sufis,
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : And there is no doubt that the people who will write and produce this play do not have knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence, especially the jurisprudence of the Book and the Sunnah. They will describe and portray her based on the narratives found in the books of the Sufis. She is counted among the great ascetics and Sufis, and the most famous thing narrated about her, regardless of whether what is narrated about her is true or not, because it is not possible to judge the truth of everything narrated regarding this Sufi woman and others like her, is that she used to say in her supplication to her Lord, "My Lord, I did not worship You out of hope for Your Paradise or fear of Your Fire, but I worship You because You are worthy of worship." This is beautiful poetic language that captivates the hearts of those who do not know what is permissible and what is not permissible in Islam. She says in her supplication to her Lord, "I did not worship You out of hope for Your Paradise or fear of Your Fire." This cannot come from a Muslim who fears Allah. Why? Because the Muslim who believes in Allah with true faith must have believed in all the attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) completely, as He described Himself in His Book or in the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Among these is that Allah is of immense generosity, and among these is that Allah is severe in punishment. So, one who knows Allah by these two attributes, along with the other attributes, that He is an Avenger, the Compeller, and that He is Generous, and so on, cannot imagine this believer when he worships Allah, that he does not worship Him out of hope for His bounty or fear of His punishment. This is impossible. Therefore, it came in the Noble Qur'an that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) described some of His chosen, righteous servants by saying (Mighty and Majestic):
They worship Us out of desire and fear.
يعبدوننا رغبا ورهباThe questioner : My teacher, for the sake of benefit, can we now say about Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah, did my teacher, did she die in a state of righteousness, or like other Sufis such as Ibn Arabi and others?
The Shaykh : No, we cannot judge any person regarding what they died upon. Allah knows best about them. So, there is no benefit for us in being certain that he died a believer or a disbeliever. Rather, the important thing is that the words narrated about this one or that one, or about this one or that one, are words that are not permissible to be said in Islam, and that is enough. So that the Muslim takes a lesson and stays away from them.
The questioner : Indeed, by Allah, may Allah reward you with good for us, and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The Shaykh : And to you, and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.