RABIA AL-ADAWIYAH

RABIATUL ADAWIYAH

She was a beautiful woman. She was a loyal lover. She was a very determined person. What’s more: she was a great muslimah that she died along with Allah’s blessing. There are a few stories which I heard that intrigued me to know more about her.

1 – Why did I say that she was a loyal lover? She loves ALLAH very much that she was willing to do anything to be with ALLAH. There was once a man who liked her and would follow her everyday to the market but stayed away from being noticeable juz to watch Rabiatul Adawiyah. However, Rabiatul Adawiyah knew about the man and one day she came face-to-face with the man and asked him the reason he was following her. The man said that he was attracted to Rabiatul Adawiyah’s eyes. You want to know what she did after hearing the man’s answer? On the following day, the man received a small box given by Rabiatul Adawiyah’s maid at his house. The small box contained a pair of eyes. They are Rabiatul Adawiyah’s eyes. Want to know the reason why she gave him her eyes?

“ These eyes are the reason why you are attracted to me. These eyes are belong to ALLAH. You (that is, the man himself) should not love me because of my eyes..”

And it was told that Rabiatul Adawiyah died a few days later because of an infection to her now-gone eyes…..

2 – Rabiatul Adawiyah is very khusyuk (pay utmost attention) when performing the solat (prayers). She was a very diligent ‘servant’ to her ‘master’ (ALLAH). She would wake up in the early hours of the day (meaning, at 3am ++) juz to perform solat sunat tahajud and others when everyone would be found sleeping soundly in his or her house. She humbled herself in front of ALLAH and asked for His forgiveness every night. She was so khusyuk that she did not even realized that there were thieves entering her house when performing her prayers. She did not hear any sound of footsteps or even the sound of door cracking. But one day, ALLAH helped her by ‘saving’ her belongings from being stealed by a thief who was breaking into her house. As usual, he could enter easily into Rabiatul Adawiyah’s house. However, he could not go out when he had finished deciding which things he wanted to take along with him. This is because everytime he found the way out, there was no door which happened to stood in front of him juz a moment ago. It seemed that he was going to stuck in the house forever. ALLAH ‘closed’ the thief’s eyes that he could not see the door. Finally, the thief gave up and left the house without taking anything.

ALLAH has many ways in helping His obedient servants who crave for His blessing.
And Rabiatul Adawiyah is one of the lucky people.

3) Want to know the Doa from Rabiatul Adawiyah to ALLAH? I would write in Malay but I’ll try translating it to English afterwards. Here goes:

“ Ya ALLAH, sekiranya amalanku ini adalah kerana takutkan nerakamu, maka tolaklah amalanku itu. Sekiranya amalanku ini adalah kerana mengharapkan syurgamu, maka Kau tolaklah juga amalanku itu tetapi sekiranya amalanku ini adalah kerana CINTAku pada-Mu, maka kau terimalah amalanku itu.”

“Ya ALLAH, if my deeds are because of afraid of the Hayfire, then You may refuse to accept the deeds. If my deeds are because of craving of Your Heaven, then You may also decline my deeds. But if my deeds are because of my LOVE towards You, then You may accept them.”

Another Doa from this bold and beautiful woman:

“ Jikalau ALLAH lebih redha aku masuk ke neraka, maka aku juga redha dimasukkan ke dalam neraka”

“If ALLAH more aggreable to put me in the Hell, then I,too, am ready to be put in the Hell”

These stories which I heard from many sources have somehow touched the deep of my heart. The above stories have one clear message :

We belong to ALLAH ( for Muslims, especially). We'll go back to ALLAH in the end. There's no doubt about that. The question is : whether we, as Muslims, love ALLAH as Rabiatul Adawiyah do? (well, of course, not only her, but the best icon of all, OUR Prophet Muhammad SAW and other friends of him). Are we prepared yet to face the death?

It makes me realise there have been so many things happened in my life that I'm wondering myself: did I go through all of that well enough to secure myself a place in Heaven? Subhanallah!! I've many weaknesses that I need to overcome and I'm still trying to deal with the path ALLAH has chosen for me. Can I pass through this difficult journey well? I'm asking for His blessing. For His barakah. For His safety. I NEED Him.

Wallahualam...