RÃÂbia al-Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya (; 801 CE) or Rabia Basri was a poet, one of the earliest Sufi mystics and an influential religious figure from Iraq. Her full name is said to be RÃÂbiÿa bint IsmÃÂÿël; her kunya was Umm ÿAmr (or Umm al-Khayr), her wilÃÂya was al-ÿAtakiyyah, and her nisba was al-ÿAdawiyya or al-Qaysëyya because she was a freed slave of the tribe of Qays ibn ÿAdë. She is regarded as one of the three preeminent Qalandars of the world.
Very little is known about the life of RabiâÂÂa, notes Rkia Elaroui Cornell.
Cornell further notes that she was mentioned by two early Basran authors. "Because of this, they were familiar with her reputation. This local reputation is the best empirical evidence we have that RabiâÂÂa actually existed." She also writes, "To date, no written body of work has been linked conclusively to RabiâÂÂa al-âÂÂAdawiyya."
Despite this, narratives about Rabiÿa grew over the centuries, and a considerable hagiography developed. Attar of Nishapur, a Sufi saint and poet who lived some four centuries later, recounted a now-famous story of her early life. Many of her hagiographies depict her using literary or philosophical tropes where she, like her Christian counterparts, embodied idealized religious individuals.
According to Margaret Smith, she is said to have died in Basra in 185 AH/801 CE. Others report that she passed around 180 AH, at about 80 years old.
In his work, Dhikr al-niswat al-mutaÿabbidÃÂt al-á¹£à «fiyyÃÂt (pp. 27, 54, 59), Sulamë mentions two other female Sufis with the same name besides RÃÂbiÿa al-ÿAdawiyya. One of them is RÃÂbiÿa al-Azdiyya from Basra, the wife of ÿAbd al-WÃÂḥid b. Zayd (d. 177/793), one of the famous Sufis of the time, and the other is Aḥmad b. Abà « al-ḤawÃÂrëâÂÂs wife was RÃÂbiÿa bint IsmÃÂÿël of Damascus (d. 228/844). The existence of three different RÃÂbiÿas in the same period has led to conflicting information about RÃÂbiÿa al-ÿAdawiyya in the sources.
Her father had three daughters, and RÃÂbiÿa was the fourth. And so they called her RÃÂbiÿa, meaning "the fourth one."
Born into a poor home, she was stolen as a child (another account narrates that her parents died and a great famine occurred in Basra, separating the sisters) and sold into slavery (she is even sometimes made into a qayna [female singer]), but her sanctity secured her freedom, and she retired to a life of seclusion and celibacy, at first in the desert and then in Basra.
Often noted as having been the single most famous woman in Islam, Rabiÿa was renowned for her high virtue and piety. A devoted ascetic, when asked why she performed a thousand ritual prostrations both during the day and at night, she is said to have answered, "I desire no reward for it; I do it so that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and give him peace, will delight in it on the day of Resurrection and say to the prophets, 'Take note of what a woman of my community has accomplished.'"
Rabiÿa was described as being intense in her self-denial and devotion to God. Explaining her refusal to lift her head toward the heavens (towards God) as an act of modesty, she's noted as having said: "Were the world the possession of a single man, it would not make him rich ... because it is passing away."
According to Sufi accounts, she was the first to set forth the doctrine of divine love known as Ishq and is widely considered as being the most important of the early renunciants, a form of piety that would eventually be labelled Sufism.
Much of the poetry attributed to her is of unknown origin. There is no evidence in the historical archive that Rabia ever met Hasan al-Basri; however, the following stories, which first appeared in Attar of Nishapur's Tazkirat al-Awliya, is a common trope in the modern period: After a life of hardship, she spontaneously achieved a state of self-realization. When asked by Hasan al-Basri how she discovered the secret, she responded by stating "you know of the how, but I know of the how-less."
One of the many stories that surround her life is that she was freed from slavery because her master saw her praying while surrounded by light, realized that she was a saint and feared for his life if he continued to keep her as a slave.
Biographer Rkia Elaroui Cornell discovered four main characterizations of Rabia: Rabia the Teacher, Rabia the Ascetic, Rabia the Lover, and Rabia the Sufi.
Rabia is often described as being an ascetic, where "the ascetic attains the otherworldly not by rejecting the world but by treating it as unimportant. The ascetic avoids the World not because it is evil per se but because it is a distraction from God."
In a Sufi narrative, Sufi leader Hasan al-Basri explained, "I passed one whole night and day with Rabi'a ... it never passed through my mind that I was a man nor did it occur to her that she was a woman... when I saw her I saw myself as bankrupt and Rabi'a as truly sincere."
She decided to stay celibate in order to live life unlike other Muslim women of her time, and devote herself completely to God. Among her most notable qualities besides her devotion to God were her humility and celibacy. Living alone with divine love, she is adored by many for her religious passion and the example she set for the growing Muslim population. However, her importance and legacy remain prominent through tales of her life, modern references, and her standing in Muslim culture, while no physical evidence was found of her, Rabia's story and poetry remain an inspiration to women and Muslim people today.
The life of Rabia has been the subject of several motion pictures of Turkish cinema. One of these films, Rabia, released in 1973, was directed by Osman F. Seden, and Fatma Girik played the leading role of Rabia.
Rabia, ðlk Kadñn Evliya (Rabia, The First Woman Saint) is another Turkish film on Rabia. It was also released in 1973 and was directed by Süreyya Duru, starring Hülya KoçyiÃÂit.
The Indonesian song "Jika Surga dan Neraka Tak Pernah Ada" () sung by Ahmad Dhnani and Chrisye on their 2004 album Senyawa, is based on Rabia's quotes about worshipping God out of love, not out of fear of punishment or desire for a reward.
Rabia appears in 2025's Civilization VII as a Great Person for the Abbasid civilization. When used on a building, +10% happiness is added to the settlement.
Spanish musician RosalÃÂa included the phrase "Ninguna mujer pretendió ser Dios" (), attributed to Rabia Basri, inside the physical release of her 2025 album Lux. The full quote she refers to reads: "(...) women have never been so infatuated with themselves as men, nor have they ever claimed divinity." In the album's 11th track "La Yugular" she references Rabia with Arabic lyrics that refer to Rabia's wish to burn down heaven and quench the fires of hell, saying she'd do that for the divine love she has for God, for no promises or threats. The song is a deeply personal tribute to Rabia and RosalÃÂa's journey to finding the God that's "as close to her as her jugular vein", a reference to a passage in the Quran that says the same.