Who is this?

[Melody]

I found this lovely verse and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me who this person is:

My Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship You from hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your Eternal Beauty. --Rabia al-Adawiyya

I admit I'm making assumptions that the author is Muslim by his name. Thanks for any inf.

 

[lilithu]

I found this lovely verse and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me who this person is:

My Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship You from hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your Eternal Beauty. --Rabia al-Adawiyya

I admit I'm making assumptions that the author is Muslim by his name. Thanks for any inf.

She's a Sufi poet. Lived in Persia (Iran/Iraq) around the 8th century C.E. I love her too!

 

[Melody]

She's a Sufi poet. Lived in Persia (Iran/Iraq) around the 8th century C.E. I love her too!

Thanks and frubals to you! I'm going to go see what else I can find of hers.

 

[Natural Submission]

I found this lovely verse and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me who this person is:

My Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship You from hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your Eternal Beauty. --Rabia al-Adawiyya

I admit I'm making assumptions that the author is Muslim by his name. Thanks for any inf.

Interestingly many paradigms of thought say we should ONLY worship God/Allah/YHWH for fear of punishment. The great Prophet Solomon said the BEGINNING of wisdom is fear of GOD/Allah/YHWH. So this notion isn't wrong per se, rather what is wrong is to make this a locked door before us, not allowing our conscious thought to progress. THIS is wrong, for fear is the first step of an endless journey.

To worship STRICTLY for hope of Paradise is incorrect, but to incorporate such hope in your struggle is wise.

Ultimately in the grand scheme of things we are to worship for God/Allah/YHWH and not for our "selves". For we are all dependant on God/Allah/YHWH and we all have the potential to "awaken" to a higher level of conscious perception merging with the Force that gives life to this planet and all manifestation within the Divine Matrix of thought construct.

 

[lilithu]

Interestingly many paradigms of thought say we should ONLY worship God/Allah/YHWH for fear of punishment. The great Prophet Solomon said the BEGINNING of wisdom is fear of GOD/Allah/YHWH. So this notion isn't wrong per se, rather what is wrong is to make this a locked door before us, not allowing our conscious thought to progress. THIS is wrong, for fear is the first step of an endless journey.

To worship STRICTLY for hope of Paradise is incorrect, but to incorporate such hope in your struggle is wise.

Ultimately in the grand scheme of things we are to worship for God/Allah/YHWH and not for our "selves". For we are all dependant on God/Allah/YHWH and we all have the potential to "awaken" to a higher level of conscious perception merging with the Force that gives life to this planet and all manifestation within the Divine Matrix of thought construct.

Very nice! I don't disagree with you, but I do think that there are different paths for different folks, and Rabia's path was not the same as yours.

Rabia was extreme. EVERYTHING was for God. She lived as a celibate ascetic who would not even eat dates because she thought the sweet taste distracted her from God. She would not ask God to cure a nagging illness that she suffered because she believed it was willed by God. For her, there was no room for fear or hope because these emotions were still self-centered. As Rumi later said, the Sufi mystic's love for God is like a moth to a flame. The goal is the complete anihilation of the self in God's glory.

I love the mystics, but it is a hard path for others to follow, myself included. There are times when love for God wells up so overwhelmingly in me that I think that I could live their way. But it subsides, and I go back to enjoying chocolate and spring flowers and the company of others and other pleasures of this world. However, that poem that Melody posted always stays with me. How can my love for the Creator/Sustainer have conditions on it? How can I say, "I will love you but only if you don't punish me. Or only if you reward me."? The love itself is reward enough. And those times that I am cut off from it is already the worst punishment that I can imagine.