Hierarchical Inversions, Divine Subversions

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Hierarchical Inversions, Divine Subversions: The Miracles of Râbiʿa al-ʿAdawîya

Author(s): Heidi A. Ford
Source: Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Fall, 1999), pp. 5-24
Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of FSR, Inc
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HIERARCHICAL INVERSIONS, DIVINE SUBVERSIONS
The Miracles of Rabi'a al-'Adawiya
Heidi A. Ford
Out of the mists of the eighth century emerged a woman, a relatively ob

scure figure in the chronicles of history, who would eventually become the
"saint par excellence of Sunnite hagiography."' Her name was Rabi'a al-'Adawiya
(d. A.H. 185 [801 C.E.]). Of her actual life few details remain. Yet what history
has erased, legend has created. Within a century of her death, her name ap
peared in written sources, and it continued to appear throughout the medieval
and modem periods.2 Even today, nearly twelve hundred years after her death,
she continues to draw the interest of many diverse scholars, from those inter
ested in Sufism to those interested in the role of women in Islam.3 Within this
body of scholarship, however, one aspect of her hagiographical persona has
yet to be adequately addressed: her miracles. Although Rabi'a is perhaps best
1 Margaret Smith, Rdbi'a the Mystic and Her Fellow Saints in Islam (1928; reprint, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1984), 3.
2 For a representative sample, see Abu Qasim 'Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah al
Qushayriyahfi'ilm al-tasawwuf, ed. 'Abd al-Halim Mah.md and Mahmuid Ibn al-Sharlf, 2 vols.
(Cairo: Dar al-Kutfb al-Hadithah, 1966); Abf Talib al-Makkl, Qit al-qulubft mu'maldt al-mahbib
(Cairo: al-Matba'ah al-Maymaniyyah, A.H. 1310/1892-93 C.E.), 1:103, 106, 2:40, 57, 247; Abu al
Faraj Ibn al-Jawz, Al-Muntazamfi td'rkh al-muluk wa-al-umam (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyah,
1992), 7:326-28; Ibn al-Jawzi, $ifat al-safiwah, 2d ed. (Hyderabad, India: Matba'at Majlis Da'irat al
Ma'arif al-Uthmaniyah, 1972), 4:16-18; Shams al-Din Ibn Khallikan, Kitdb Wafayat al-a'ydn, ed.
Ihsan 'Abbas (Beirut: Dar al-Thaqafah, 1968), 2:285-88; and 'Abd al-Ra'ff al-Munawi, Al-Kawdkib
al-durriyahfi tartjim al-sddah al-$ufiyah, ed. 'Abd al-Hamid Salih Hamdan (Cairo: al-Maktabah al
Azhariyah lil-Turath, 1994), 1:200-204.
3 For a representative sample, see Samih 'Atif al-Zayn, Ribi'a al-'Adawiya (Beirut: al-Sharikah
al-'ilimiyyah lil-Kitab, 1988); 'Abd al-Mun'im al-Hifni, Al-'Abidah al-khishi'ah: Rbi'a al-'Adawiya,
imrmat al-'shiqin wa-al-mahziinin (Cairo: Dar al-Rashad, 1991); Taha 'Abd al-Baqi Surur, Ribi'a
al-'Adawiya wa-al-hayah al-ruihiyahfi al-lsldm (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'Arabi, 1957); 'Abd al-Rahman
Badawi, Shahidat al-'ishq al-ilahi, Ribi'a al-'Adawiya (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahdah al-Misriyah,
1962); Barbara Lois Helms, "Rabi'a as Mystic, Muslim, and Woman" in The Annual Review of Women
in World Religions, ed. Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1994), 3:1-87; Smith (cited in n. 1); and Julian Baldick, "The Legend of Rabi'a of Basra:
Christian Antecedents, Muslim Counterparts," Religion 20, no. 3 (1990): 233-47.
6 Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
known for her poems, sayings, and teachings on Sufism, it is her miracles that
played the decisive role in her construction as a saint par excellence. Her mir
acles, the role they played in the development of her hagiographical persona,
and what the study of the saintly persona of this exemplary figure can lend to
our understanding of women in Islam constitute the focus of this article.
Before proceeding to my analysis of Rabi'a's miracles and the construction
of her hagiographical persona, the implications of this analysis for the femi
nist understanding of women in Islam should first be addressed. In recent years
the study of exemplary women has come under criticism from feminist scholars
who question the productivity of searching the pages of history for exceptional
women who defy an oppressive tradition.4 As Rita Gross has shown, the positive
representation of the feminine in a religious tradition does not correlate to the
improvement in the sociohistorical status of women.5 In fact, just the opposite
can be argued: that the promotion of exemplars, such as Rabi'a, further the sub
jugation of ordinary women. A cursory glance at Rabi'a's persona would seem to
justify such criticism. On the one hand she is presented as a woman who "had no
equal in proper behavior or mystical knowledge" and who "was esteemed by the
great people of the age and was a decisive proof for those who lived in her time."6
On the other hand, however, we are told that she is not truly a woman. Her chief
medieval biographer, the Persian Farid al-Din 'Attar, explains her place among
the ranks of men by stating that "when a woman is a man on the path of the lord
Most High, she cannot be called woman."7 If Rabi'a, an exemplary woman, is
symbolically a man, then the criticism leveled against exceptional women like
Rabi'a would seem justified. Quite clearly, no ordinary woman could hope to
mimic such a feat. She would be the exception that proves the norm.
There is validity in such criticisms. If Rabi'a is symbolically a man, then
does she not reinforce the patriarchal dichotomy between good and evil, man
and woman, spirit and flesh? If one takes 'Attar's statement at face value, then
this conclusion is inescapable. However, to reach this conclusion, one must dis
regard the literary and historical context in which it was said. 'Attar prefaces this
statement with one he attributes to the prophet Muhammad: "God does not
regard your forms." He continues, "It is not a matter of form, but of right inten
tion."8 Thus, 'Attar's statement "she cannot be called woman" must be under
4 See, for example, Marcia K. Hermansen, "The Female Hero in the Islamic Religious Tradi
tion," in The Annual Review of Women in World Religions, ed. Arvind Sharma and Katherine K.
Young (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 2:111-43.
5 See, for example, Rita M. Gross, Feminism and Religion (Boston: Beacon, 1996), 158,188-90.
6 Farid al-Din 'Attar, "Rabi'a: Her Words and Life in 'Attar's Memorial of the Friends of God,"
trans. Paul Losenskywith Michael Sells, in Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur'dn, Mi'raj, Poetic, and
Theological Writings, ed. Michael Sells (New York: Paulist, 1996), 155.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
Ford: Hierarchical Inversions, Divine Subversions 7
stood within its larger context-a context imbued with references to the mysti
cal notion of unity (tawhid).9 In a similar vein, Annemarie Schimmel has noted,
with regard to Rabi'a, that "one should not be misled by the constant use of the
word 'man' in the mystical literature of the Islamic languages: it merely points to
the ideal human being who has reached proximity to God where there is no dis
tinction of sexes; and Rabi'a is the prime example of this proximity."10 In ad
dition to the literary context in which this problematic phrase is found, we must
also consider the historical context. We would do well to remember that 'Attar
was writing in the twelfth century and reflects the dominant androcentric bias
of the period. As Ursula King has noted with regard to female mystics in gen
eral, it was the dominant androcentric perspective which required that women
of such spiritual strength be described as men."
However, even if one disregards the issue of Rabi'a's symbolic gender trans
formation, the question of the value of studying such exemplary women still
remains. This value would seem to be limited. Ruth Roded has argued that
"the significance of these women's lives lies in their words and deeds, which
are models for all Muslims." The importance of exemplary women as an object
of study is thereby relegated to their ability to "relay messages about the proper
or perhaps ideal behavior of women."'2 Marcia K. Hermansen reaches a simi
lar conclusion, arguing that "the study of paradigmatic women in religious tra
dition ... is instructive heuristically, because it discloses the contours of how
ordinary lives should be lived."'3
Viewed from this perspective, the value of a figure such as Rabi'a is limited
to her ability to serve as a model of pious behavior and as a symbol of Sufism.
She is an exemplary paradigm that serves, as feminist theorists have noted,
merely to reinforce traditional values and the cultural status quo, and to render
ordinary women all the more ordinary. This argument, however, presumes that
meaning is fixed, not fluid; hence the conclusion that exemplars like Rabi'a can
be understood only as reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes and cultural
values. Moreover, such arguments presuppose that the reader is neutral, deriv
ing only the intended meaning from a text. If one follows this argument through
9 Tawhid may be defined as the point at which "the absoluteness of the Divine nature [is] re
alised in the passing-away of the human nature," so that one's "last state reverts to his first state and
he becomes even as he was before he existed." R. A. Nicholson, The Idea of Personality in Sufism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964; Lahore: Ashraf, 1970), 17.
10 Annemarie Schimmel, "Women in Mystical Islam," in Women and Islam, ed. Azizah al-Hibri
(Oxford: Pergamon, 1982), 151.
11 Ursula King, Women and Spirituality, 2d ed. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1993), 96.
12 Ruth Roded, Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: From Ibn Sa'd to Who's Who
(Boulder: Mynne Rienner, 1994), 94.
13 Hermansen (cited in n. 4), 2:114.
and assumes that Muslim women "read"14 the stories of Ribica, then one must
accept that they did so passively, deriving only the intended meaning from the
text. Thus, we are left with a text that perpetuates the cultural status quo and a
readership who passively accepts it. In essence, this approach perpetuates the
cultural stereotype of the passive and powerless Muslim woman.
My analysis, however, proceeds from a different perspective. It approaches
the texts through which Rabi'a's hagiographical persona is constituted as pos
sessing neither closed nor immutable meanings. Rather, it recognizes that the
meaning of a text is neither inherent nor objective but is produced through a
signifying process in which the reader participates. Such an approach acknowl
edges that symbols are appropriated in different capacities by different groups.
We know, for example, that "men and women of a single tradition-when work
ing with the same symbols and myths, writing in the same genre, and living
in the same religious or professional circumstances-display certain consistent
male/female differences in using symbols."'5 Thus, as I shall argue, the anec
dotes of Rabi'a may be utilized differently by women and men and yield differ
ent meanings to each. Although these stories were perhaps originally deployed
to teach specific behaviors, they are open to interpretation.
Moreover, if the meaning ascribed to Rabi'a as an exemplary figure is fluid
and open to interpretation, then this may in part explain her sustained popu
larity. The fact that Rabi'a did not fade into the mists of time but, rather, that
her legend continued to grow and develop would seem to indicate that her per
sona continued to remain vital to the community. As Pierre Delooz has noted,
"All saints are more or less constructed in that, being necessarily saintsfor other
people, they are remodeled in the collective representation which is made of
them."'6 Moreover, if the narrative of a particular saint is to remain integral to
the life of the community, this shaping and reshaping will continue, as it did
in the case of Rabi'a. As her narrative continues to be told centuries after her
death, it must be understood as fulfilling some need or needs within the com
munity.
The persona of Rabi'a can be seen as fulfilling two diametrically opposed
needs. On the one hand Rabi'a demonstrates the power of Sufism, for it is by fol
lowing this path that she is transformed from a lowly freed slave into the "Crown
of Men." Viewed from this perspective, Rabi'a demonstrates that Sufism can
14 I use the word "read" in quotation marks here not to suggest that Muslim women did not
read, but rather to suggest that the stories of Rabi'a, although recorded in writing, were considered
popular narratives more likely to be heard than read.
15 Caroline Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman, eds., Gender and Religion: On the
Complexity of Symbols (Boston: Beacon, 1990), 13, quoted in Hermansen (cited in n. 4), 2:112.
16 Pierre Delooz, "Towards a Sociological Study of Canonized Sainthood in the Catholic
Church," in Saints and Their Cults: Studies in Religious Sociology, Folklore, and History, ed. Stephen
Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 195, quoted in Edith Wyschogrod, Saints
and Postmodernism: Revisioning Moral Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 7.
work miracles; it can change a slave into a master and a woman into a man. On
the other hand, while clearly Rabi'a has come to symbolize Sufism to some
degree, this facet of her hagiographical persona is not sufficient in itself to
explain fully her sustained popularity. Moreover, this estimation of Rabi'a does
little to further either our understanding of her significance or our understand
ing of women in Islam. I would suggest that Rabi'a's more significant role was
to serve as a symbol of resistance or, in the words of Hermansen, as a "culture
critiquing female hero."'7 While such a role is at odds with the dominant per
ception of Rabi'a, elements of her hagiographical persona clearly allude to a dis
course of resistance that engaged and "rejected the values of the dominant
society with regard to women."1' This facet of R&bi'a's hagiographical persona
becomes even more apparent when one examines the function of miracles
within her narratives. That the miracle should be the instrument that allows
Rabi'a to invert and subvert the divine and social hierarchies should not be sur
prising, for the miracle by its very nature demands an interruption of the natu
ral order.
During the medieval period, tales of the miraculous flourished through
out Islamic lands. Concomitant with the more popular tales was a growing
body of polemical and apologetic works on the nature of miracles.l9 Moreover,
nearly all of the early Sufi manuals contain chapters dealing with miracles.20 Al
though a miracle is defined as an act that violates custom (wa ld budda an takun
hddhihi al-kardmahfi'lan naqidan lil-'ddah),2 such a technical definition does
not seem to express fully the significance of a miracle. A miracle is an act that
not only violates custom but also represents the intersection of the divine and
earthly realms.
Thus, to study the miracle is to study the nexus of the human and the di
vine manifested in a single act. These single acts and the narratives that ac
company them constitute, in the words of Michel de Certeau, the "discourse of
virtues" that is hagiography; a discourse that favors saints, who are actors of the
sacred realm, and that "intends to edify, through exemplarity."22 It is at once "the
literary crystallization of the perceptions of a collective consciousness" and a
17 Hermansen, 130.
18 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 96.
19 See, for example, Muhammad Ibn al-Tayyib al-Baqillan, Kitib al-Baydn 'an al-farq bayna
al-mu'jizdt wa-al-karidmt wa-al-hiyal wa-al-kihanah wa-al-sihr wa-al-ndranjdt, ed. Richard J. Mc
Carthy (Beirut: Librairie Orientale, 1958).
20 See, for example, al-Hujwiri, Kashfal-mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, trans.
R. A. Nicholson (Karachi: Dar al-Ishat, 1990), 218-34; al-Qushayi (cited in n. 2), 2:660-64; and Abu
Nasr al-Sarraj, Kitdb al-Luma', ed. 'Abd al-Halim Mahmfid and Tah 'Abd al-Baqi Surir (Baghdad,
1960), 390-408.
21 Al-Qushayri, 2:660.
22 Michel de Certeau, The Writing of History, trans. Tom Conley (New York: Columbia Uni
versity Press, 1988), 277, 269.
discourse that adheres "to an eschatological schema inverting the political order
in order to replace it with a celestial one and turn the impoverished into kings."23
This discourse, built around the life of a saint, is a topological amalgamation of
virtues and miracles, powers reflecting the social norm, in the case of the
former, and inverting it, in the case of the latter. Thus, "the exception (or mir
acle) is taken to be the eruption of divine power: what is true (what conforms
to being) does not conform to the social order."24 In fact, it is the miracle which
enables the weak to challenge and subvert the strong by claiming a higher, in
contestable source of authority.
The miracle, then, is a symbolic representation of divine power. It is able
symbolically to subvert the political order or the dominant knowledge and
power hierarchies because it functions, according to Pierre Bourdieu, in the
"social world... [which] may be described and constructed in different ways in
accordance with different principles of vision and division."25 Following Bour
dieu's line of reasoning, we may posit that the performance of a miraculous act,
when it is perceived by agents endowed with the appropriate categories of per
ception, functions within the social reality as a sign. In effect, it serves as a sign
of distinction in the symbolic struggle over the perception of the social world.
In this capacity, the miraculous act functions on an objective level as an act of
representation "meant to show up and to show off certain realities." However,
it also functions on a subjective level in its capacity to "change the categories
of perception and evaluation of the social world."26 Thus, the miraculous act
is able to subvert the social reality in which it is grounded, because by its very
nature it is, to borrow Certeau's terminology, "the eruption of divine power." In
other words, it claims as its source of power and authority that which is both ex
ternal to and above social reality: God. With these theoretical underpinnings in
place, let us now turn to the miracle in an Islamic context.
Within the literary corpus of Islamic hagiography, the miracle story may be
considered an anecdotal subgenre. Despite the prevalence of the miracle story
in Islamic hagiography, its morphology has yet to be elucidated. We may com
pare this state of affairs to the abundance of scholarly work conducted on the
miracle story within a Christian context. While one might think there would be
great similarities between these types of miracle stories, in fact differences in
both motif and structure predominate.27 Moreover, such approaches do not
23 Ibid., 270, 276.

24 Ibid., 278.
25 Pierre Bourdieu, In Other Words: Essays toward a Reflexive Sociology, trans. Matthew
Adamson (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 132.
26 Ibid., 134.
27 See, for example, Gerd Theissen, The Miracle Stories of the Early Christian Tradition, trans.
Francis McDonagh (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983). Theissen presents in this work a detailed analysis
of the different motifs, themes, and social functions of the Christian miracle story. However, the ma
jority of the motifs and themes he discusses do not correspond to those borne out in Islamic sources.
provide an adequate means of addressing issues of gender. Therefore, another

approach is necessary. Although we are not dealing with an adab character
in the strict sense, such as the uninvited guest (tufayli), clever thief (dhakf), or
any of the other literary character types found to be inhabiting the anecdotal
world of classical Arabic adab literature, the methodology developed by Fedwa
Malti-Douglas seems applicable to the study of miraculous anecdotes of Rabi'a
al-'Adawiya.28
Any discussion of miracles in an Islamic context will necessarily involve the
Sufi and the wall (pl. awliyd'). A wal is defined as, among other things, "a man
close to God, holy man, saint."29 In a strictly morphological sense, the walt is not
necessarily a Sufi, nor does the wall necessarily perform miracles, or karadmdt.
However, from a practical perspective, the performance of miracles was ac
knowledged early on. For example, the author of the earliest Persian work on
Sufism, al-Hujwiri, writes that "a miracle is a token of a saint's truthfulness,"30
and another early Sufi author, al-Kalabadhi, states that "prophets are accorded
marvels [muyizat], saints miracles, and the enemies (of God) deceptions."31
Thus, a wali or Sufi may be defined as one who has the ability to perform mir
acles, which may "consist of an answer to prayer, or the completion of a spiritual
state, or the granting of the power to perform an act, or the supplying of the
means of subsistence requisite and due to them [awliya], in an manner extra
ordinary."32
A great variety of miracle stories are found in the Islamic hagiographical
tradition. Taj al-Din al-Subki distinguishes twenty-five main types of miracles in
his Tabaqat al-shdfi'iyah al-kubrd, and the number Yfsuf al-Nabhani cites in his
Jdmi' kardmdt al-awliyd' exceeds one hundred, including subgroups.33 Despite
the different types of miracles recorded, they all share one thing in common: in
each and every case, they represent a nexus of the human and the divine.
Exploring this nexus as it is manifested in the miracles of the eighth
century mystic Rabi'a al-'Adawiya shall not only permit the basic patterns of the
28 See, for example, Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Structures of Avarice: The Bukhald' in Medieval
Arabic Literature (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985); Fedwa Malti-Douglas, "Structure and Organization in
a Monographic Adab Work: Al-Tatfil of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40,
no. 3 (1981): 227-45; and Fedwa Malti-Douglas, "Classical Arabic Crime Narratives: Thieves and
Thievery in Adab Literature,"Journal of Arabic Literature 19 (1988): 59-91.
29 Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 3d ed., ed. J. Milton Cowan (Ithaca:
Spoken Language Services, 1976), 1100.
30 Al-Hujwlri (cited in n. 20), 218.
31 Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Kalabadhi, Kitdb al-Ta'arrufli-Madhhab Ahl al-TaSawuAf, trans.
A. J. Arberry (London: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 59.
32 Ibid.
33 Taj al-Din 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn 'All al-Sublk, Tabaqdt al-shdfi'iyah al-kubrd, ed. 'Abd al
Fattah Muhammad al-H ulw and Mabmfid Muhammad al-Tanhi (Cairo: 'Isa al-Babi al-Halabi,
1964), 2:339-344; Yfsuf ibn Isma'il al-Nabhani,Jdmi' kardmndt al-awliyd' (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1992),
1:48-60.
miraculous anecdote to be isolated and discerned, but will also elucidate the
function of the miraculous anecdote with regard to Rabi'a. As will become evi
dent, the miraculous anecdote played a decisive role in Rabi'a's transformation
into the "saint par excellence of Sunnite hagiography."34 Moreover, it is through
these miracles that RAbi'a-a woman, an orphan, a freed slave; in other words,
one of the weak-was able to subvert the social and divine hierarchy, by calling
into "question the 'reason' behind power and knowledge hierarchies."35
If Rabi'a calls into question the power and knowledge hierarchies, thereby
subverting the social order, then what exactly is the proper social order? Among
the views propounded by scholars is that of Moroccan Fatna A. Sabbah: "The
religious discourse is the world's order. And it is the monopoly of the divine
being, who is of the male sex. He addresses human beings indirectly through
intermediaries, who are privileged human beings, the prophets. They are with
out exception also of the male sex."36 Without going too far afield, we can sum
up the position of women with a quote from Ibn Khaldun, citing Ibn al-Khatib:
"Laws are not addressed to them [women] because they are without power."37
Within this divine scheme of things, then, according to Sabbah, a male God
transmits a message indirectly to his male prophets, who deliver the message
to the male religious scholars, who interpret it and transmit it to the male be
lievers, who then deliver it to the female believers. Thus, we find woman at the
bottom of the divine and social order, because she is without power.38
However, within the realm of hagiographical legend, the traditional so
cial and divine order does not always hold true. It is subverted through the phe
nomenon of the miracle. Thus, as will be shown, a woman such as Rabi'a is con
tinually able to transcend what, as a lone freed slave, would otherwise be her
34 See note 1.
35 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1984), 18.
36 Fatna A. Sabbah, Woman in the Muslim Unconscious, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (New York:
Pergamon, 1988), 70 (emphasis added). The issue of God's attributes has received considerable at
tention in Islamic theology. Although Sabbah declares that God is male, such a view would constitute
a form of tashbih by applying an attribute of creatures to God. Although one may conceive of the
deity as being male because of the confusion resulting from the third-person masculine pronoun
huwa, which can mean either "he" or "it," such a view is not supported by Islamic theology.
Sabbah's argument that "the religious discourse is the world's order" would seem to conform
with Mircea Eliade's view that "the sacred is pre-eminently the real, at one power, efficiency, the
source of life and fecundity. Religious man's desire to live in the sacred is in fact equivalent to the
desire to take up his abode in objective reality, not to let himself be paralyzed by the never-ceasing
relativity of purely subjective experiences, to live in a real and effective world, and not in an illusion."
Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, trans. Willard R. Trask (San Diego: Harcourt Brace,
1987), 28.
37 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddimah (Beirut: Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, n.d.), 196,
quoted in Sabbah, 70.
38 This view is reiterated by Fatima Mernissi in Women's Rebellion and Islamic Memory
(London: Zed, 1996), 23-27.
appropriate place at the lowest level of the social and divine hierarchy, to a po
sition in which she is superior to all but God. Her transformation from a lowly
freed slave to the holy woman whom none could best can be seen in three
different anecdotal patterns. The first type involves those anecdotes in which
Rabi'a shares her narrative space with one or more persons, being depicted in
each case as the superior individual. Anecdotes of this type may or may not in
volve the performance of a miracle, but they are distinguished by the absence of
any explicit divine manifestation, such as a hdtif, which is specific to the second
anecdotal pattern. The second anecdotal pattern encompasses those anecdotes
in which Rabi'a is paired with an explicit manifestation of the divine, usually
in the form of a mysterious but presumably divine voice, or hatif. In anecdotes
of this structural composition, if the hdtifspeaks directly to Rabi'a, then no other
person occupies the narrative space. The third anecdotal pattern encompasses
those anecdotes in which Rabi'a stands alone, with the presence of the divine
being implied through the occurrence of a miraculous act.
Each anecdotal pattern performs a slightly different function with regard
to the construction of Rabi'a's hagiographical persona. Anecdotes of the first
category establish Rabi'a's superiority over things of the profane realm, specifi
cally man, through the subversion of the dominant social discourse. In a similar
fashion, anecdotes of the second pattern forge a clear and direct relationship
between Rabi'a and the divine by subverting sacred discourse. In each of these
two anecdotal categories, Rabi'a's performance of a miracle signals an inversion
of the social and sacred hierarchies. The third anecdotal category also involves
the performance of a miracle; however, in this case it does not signal an inver
sion of the social and sacred hierarchies, but rather functions as a sign of Rabi'a's
status as a spiritual "other."39 Taken as a whole, these anecdotes are the tools
by which Rabi'a was constructed into a saint par excellence. However, the con
struction of such a historically obscure woman into a saint of unparalleled re
nown could be effected only through the subversion of the dominant social and
sacred discourses.
The first anecdotal pattern mentioned, the pairing of Rabi'a with another
person, is present in the earliest written sources that mention her. The miracu
lous element, however, does not appear until later. Nonetheless, the anecdotal
structure first discerned here remains a consistent feature in later works. The
earliest writer who mentions Rabi'a is al-Jahiz (d. A.H. 255 [869 C.E.]). A native
of Basra, he conceivably may have known her during his youth or at least may
have been familiar with her reputation. She is mentioned several times in his
39 Of the three anecdotal patterns, only anecdotes of the second pattern appear to be unique
to Rabi'a al-'Adawiya. A cursory examination of anecdotes of other female Sufis reveals a number of
anecdotes corresponding to the first anecdotal pattern (however, nowhere is this device more con
sistently applied than in the case of Rabi'a). Anecdotes of the third pattern are consistently mirrored
in anecdotes of other female Sufis.
Bayan wa al-tabyin and once in al-.Hayawdn, although neither work includes

her biography. The anecdotes al-Jahiz does mention are exemplified by the fol
lowing one: It was suggested to Rabi'a that she speak to her kinfolk about ob
taining a servant to help around her house. To this idea Rabi'a replied, "By God,
I would be ashamed to ask earthly things of him to whom the world belongs, so
how can I ask it of those to whom it does not belong?"40 Structurally, this type of
anecdote is the simplest of those we will examine. The complete entry consists
of a suggestion by an unnamed party; Rabi'a's response, which takes the form
of a rebuke; and nothing more. Such a short anecdote would hardly seem worth
mentioning. However, its importance lies not in what it includes but what it
doesn't include. In contrast to the anecdotes recorded in later works, those
recorded by al-Jahiz do not couple Rabi'a with any known figure. In fact, the
male counterpart who shares her literary space is not named at all, thereby
denying his personhood and relegating him to a general category. We may com
pare this onomastic inversion-Rabi'a's being named while her male counter
part is not-with the anecdotal norm, which reflects the inverse, as Fedwa
Malti-Douglas has shown.4' Thus, even at this early date we see the traces of the
inversions and subversions that will become a standard feature of Rabi'a's ha
giographical persona.
Rebuking an unnamed and hence unimportant male is a lesser transgres
sion of the social order than rebuking someone of stature. Yet Rabi'a's hagio
graphical persona quickly progresses to doing this as well.. Rabi'a is mentioned
numerous times in Abu Talib al-Makki's (d. A.H. 386 [996 C.E.]) tenth-century
Sufi manual, Qut al-qulub, and in nearly every case she is paired with another
famous Sufi, usually Sufyan al-Thawri (d. A.H. 161 [778 C.E.]). It is in this work
that we first discern the precise structure that frames all of Rabi'a's subsequent
interactions with other, predominantly male, Sufis. This structure is illustrated
in the following anecdote: Ja'far ibn Sulayman was with Rabi'a when Sufyan
exclaimed, "God, be pleased with us!" Hearing this, Rabi'a replied, "Are you not
ashamed before God that you ask him to be pleased, and you are not pleased
with him?" Sufyan then said, "I ask God's forgiveness."42 As this anecdote illus
trates, Rabi'a has progressed from standing alone to being coupled with a fa
mous male religious figure. However, her voice is still enclosed within the frame
of a male voice, namely that of Sufyan al-Thawri. This feature will change, but
the structure of the anecdote, in which Rabi'a is paired with a famous male reli
gious figure (or more precisely a member of the power and knowledge hier
archy) and either is shown to be spiritually superior to him or rebukes him, will
remain. This structure is consistently found in all sources on Rabi'a and is one of
the trademarks of her hagiographical persona.
40 'Amr ibn Bahr al-Jihiz, Kitdb al-Baydn wa al-tabyin (Cairo, 1949), 3:127.
41 For a discussion of women in anecdotal literature, see Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Woman's
Body, Woman's Word (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 29-53.
42 Al-Makki (cited in n. 2), 2:40.
One also finds this structure in anecdotes pairing Rabi'a with nonreli
gious figures. For example, in another anecdote, also found in Qit al-qulub, the
Abbasid emir of Basra, Muhammad ibn Sulayman, is reported to have requested
the notables of Basra to find him a wife, and they suggested Rabi'a. He then re
quested her hand in marriage, offering her a dowry of one hundred thousand
dinars. Rabi'a refused, saying, "It does not please me that you should be my ser
vant and that all you own should be mine, and that you distract me from God for
a moment."43 As in the previous examples, Rabi'a once again rebukes her narra
tive partner. However, in this case it is a confirmed member of the social power
structure who is rebuked. Because Rabi'a receives her authority directly from
God, as will become evident, she is able to invert the traditional social order and
cast the emir into the role of her servant. The coupling of terms of servitude
and ownership, as well as the mention of the dowry sum, establishes a clear pic
ture of the priorities of the worldly power structure. It is a power structure of
which Rabi'a clearly wants no part and is able to refuse because she has claim
to a higher authority. That a woman, a freed slave of no social standing, should
imply that the emir is not good enough to be her servant would seem to be a se
rious breach of social etiquette, to say the least. We may compare this to the
response Sufyan al-Thawri received when he addressed a caliph with the com
mon salutation and not one befitting the latter's station: Sufyan was forced to
flee and to spend the remainder of his life in hiding.44 If a respected traditional
ist was forced into hiding for using the wrong salutation with a caliph, one won
ders how a woman was able to insult an emir and suffer no apparent retribution.
Thus, even before Rabi'a is credited with miracles, her persona is constructed to
enable her to subvert the social order through her total disregard of its values,
paving the way for her inversion of the sacred order.
This anecdotal pattern also holds true with the introduction of miracles
into Rabi'a's hagiographical corpus, generally beginning in the twelfth and thir
teenth centuries with the onset of tabaqat works on Sufis. It is in the thirteenth
century that Rabi'a's earliest and most complete biography is recorded, in Farid
al-Din 'Attar's Tadhkirat al-awliy '. The anecdotes and sayings recorded there
continually reappear in later works, adding a whole new dimension to Rabi'a's
legend. One of the more intriguing aspects of her persona from this point for
ward is the pairing of Rabica with nearly every major Sufi who lived within a hun
dred years of her, including Dhf al-Nun al-Misri (d. A.H. 245 [859 C.E.]), Malik
ibn Dinar (d. A.H. 130 [748 C.E.]), Shaqiq al-Balkhi (d. A.H. 194 [809 C.E.]), and,
most predominantly, Hasan al-Basrn. Because Hasan died in A.H. 110 (728 C.E.),
43 Ibid., 2:57. Another version of this anecdote is found in Abd al-Ra'ff al-Munawis al-Kawdkib
al-durriyah (cited in n. 2). In this version, Rabi'a is said to have written her reply to the emir. Given
that she was orphaned as a child and then sold into slavery, it seems unlikely that she would have
known how to write.
44 Ibn Khallikan, Biographical Dictionary, trans. de Slane (Beirut: Librairie du Lubnan, 1970),
1:577.
it would have been impossible for RAbi'a to have had the type of relationship
with him that is suggested in the anecdotes. Nonetheless, Hasan is heavily rep
resented. In fact, a distinct spiritual rivalry can be perceived between the two,
with Rabi'a clearly the victor. Her spiritual maturity is continually contrasted
with Hasan's pride and naivete.45
A story of a miraculous nature serves to illustrate this point. One day Hasan
saw Rabi'a on the bank of a river. Throwing his prayer rug on the water, he said,
"Rabi'a, come here! Let's perform two rak'ahs of prayer." To this Rabi'a replied,
"Master, if you are going to display the goods of the afterworld in the market
of this world, you must do what others of your species are incapable of doing."
Rabi'a then threw her prayer rug into the air and said, "Hasan, come here,
where you'll be hidden from the people's gaze." Hasan, who was incapable of
that, said nothing. Seeking to console him, Rabi'a said, "Master, what you did a
fish can do, and what I did, a fly can do. The real business is beyond both."46
Broken down into its components, the anecdote consists of a challenge
issued by Hasan, Rabi'a's answer and mastery of that challenge, and her decla
ration of the real issue at hand. While both perform the miraculous feat of levi
tation, HIasan's is oriented toward impressing the people of the world, while
Rabi'a's is not. Therefore, Rabi'a is represented as the spiritual superior. How
ever, we may also analyze the anecdote in terms of its larger symbolic power
relations. From this perspective, Hasan is seen as the representative (albeit a re
luctant one) of the knowledge and power hierarchy. HIasan was a respected
religious scholar, involved in the religious and political controversies of the day,
who was eventually appointed qadi of Basra. We can surmise from this informa
tion that while, on the one hand, he may not have been a strong advocate of the
power structure, on the other hand, he was not a member of the powerless, dis
enfranchised classes. Thus, Rabi'a's mastery over Hasan must been seen both
in terms of its spiritual component-one Sufi besting another-and in terms of
larger social power relations-the weak besting the strong.
It should also be noted that in this anecdote Rabi'a, for the first time, is
paired with a male Sufi whom it is virtually impossible for her to have actually
known. Although from a critical perspective, the anecdotes cited earlier most
likely were also constructed, they were chronologically feasible. In contrast, this
anecdote between Rabi'a and Hasan contains a blatant anachronism. In many
ways this difference signifies the transition of Rabi'a's hagiographical persona
from one based in history to one based in legend, essentially removing her from
the dictates of common conventions.
In a similar vein is the following anecdote, cited by al-Nabhani in his Jdmi'
kardmnt al-awliyd': One day Rabi'a encountered Shayban Ra'i and said, "Truly,
45 Peter J. Awn, "Sufism," Encyclopedia of Religion, 1st ed., 14:107.

46 'Atr (cited in n. 6), 160-61. I have also consulted 'Abd al-Rahman Badawi's Arabic transla
tion of this section. Badawi's translation is based on a different manuscript, edited by R. A. Nichol
son, and is cited in Badawi's Shahiddt al-'ishq al-ildhi: Rdbia al-'Adawiya (cited in n. 2).
I desire the hajj." Upon hearing this, Shayban withdrew some gold from his
pockets and offered it to her. In response, RAbi'a raised her hand into the air,
and soon it was filled with gold. She then said, "You take gold from your pocket
while I take it from the Invisible."47 As in the preceding example, Rabi'a is again
paired here with a male religious figure. However, in this case not only is she
shown to be the spiritual superior but she is also the only narrative voice, en
closing within it Shayban's action. Also similar to the preceding example, her
spiritual superiority is directly linked to her total disregard for the conventions
of this world, whether they be the people's admiration or money. Just as her mir
acles delineate her spiritual superiority, her complete disregard for the profane
world signals her status as the spiritual other.
In each of the preceding examples, Rabi'a's spiritual superiority is continu
ally contrasted to that of her male associates, and she is, without exception, the
victor. We see Rabi'a, a woman, rebuking a man. The anecdotal pattern, which
consistently asserts Rabi'a's superiority to all men, is one of the tools utilized in
transforming her into the "saint par excellence of Sunnite hagiography." More
over, it is also the means by which Rabi'a is able to assert her claim to a higher
authority and thus to subvert the social and divine orders. As has been shown,
the miraculous anecdotes that adhere to this pattern consist of Rabi'a's being
paired with one or more individuals, her performance of a miracle, and the rec
ognition by the other party or parties of her spiritual superiority. Moreover we
find that miraculous anecdotes of this nature were also injected into the earli
est stages of her life. In 'Attar's rendition of Rabi'a's birth, the greatness she
will achieve is foreshadowed by a dream in which her father sees the Prophet,
who declares that his "daughter is a noble lady who will intercede before Him
for seventy-thousand of my community."48 The miraculous events surrounding
her birth seem to set the stage for the rest of her life. Even while in bondage
Rabi'a is credited with miraculous powers, or kardamt. The motif of divinely in
spired light, which first appears during her captivity in the form of a lantern
"suspended over Rabi'a's head without a chain,"49 continues to manifest itself
throughout her life. In 'Atar's anecdote, when her master saw the radiance ema
nating from this lantern, he recognized that such a person cannot be kept in
slavery, and freed her.
In this particular anecdote then, Rabi'a is paired with her master, who wit
nesses this miraculous act, recognizes her spiritual superiority, and frees her.
What is particularly important however, is the fact that her master is peering
through the window when he witnesses this. In other words, the building itself
separates Rabi'a from her master, thereby delineating her unique space and
status. This physical separation symbolizes her separation from society and its
rules. In effect, Rabi'a is designated as a sort of spiritual other who exists in
47 Yisuf ibn Isma'il al-Nabhani, Jmi' kardnmat al-awliyd, 2:71.

48Attar, 156.
49 Ibid., 157.
society but is not bound by its conventions. This is possible because of the
miraculous light, which is suspended without chain above her head, signifying
that Rabi'a is one of the elect of humankind. If we assume that anecdotes such
as this were devices used in constructing Rabi'a into the legendary saint she
later became, then this particular miracle must be seen as an attempt to iden
tify Rabi'a, at least in the minds of the people, with the light of God and thus to
lay the foundation for her future miracles.
This motif reappeared later in her life during a visit by Hasan al-Basnr and
some friends. Because they arrived at night and Rabi'a had no lantern, she blew
upon the tips of her fingers, which blazed like a lantern until daybreak.50 As in
the preceding examples, Rabi'a is again coupled with a male religious figure,
Hasan al-Basri, and unnamed others. However, her spiritual superiority is not
acknowledged within the narrative itself. Rather, it is recognized in the material
accompanying the anecdote. Following this anecdote 'Attar states: "If someone
asks, 'What was this like?' we answer 'Just like the hand of Moses-peace be
upon him.' If they should say, 'He was a prophet,' we would respond, 'Whoever
follows a prophet has a portion of those wonders [kardmnt]. If the prophet per
forms miracles [mu'jiza], the friend of God performs wonders by the blessing
of following the prophet.' "5 The link to prophecy 'Attar implies is consistent
with the preceding example. Here it is used to symbolize Rabi'a's connection to
the light of prophecy and thus to the prophets themselves. Such a compari
son inevitably implants in the mind of the reader (or, perhaps more correctly,
the listener) a strong association with one of the chosen of humankind, thereby
identifying Rabi'a as one of the chosen. More importantly, however, by placing
this material directly after the anecdote, not only is 'Attar sanctioning Rabi'a's
miracle and acknowledging her sanctity but he is also virtually transposing her
into the prophetic realm, a clear subversion of the acknowledged divine order.
Each of the aforementioned anecdotes falls under the first pattern described
earlier. Within this single anecdotal pattern Rabi'a's hagiographical persona has
progressed from that of one standing with unnamed and hence unimportant
persons to one coupled with important political and religious leaders. Rabi'a,
a woman, is seen to rebuke her narrative partners and in each case proves to
be their spiritual superior. Moreover, these anecdotes progress from inversion
of the social order, as in the case of the emir of Basra, to inversion of the divine
order, as in the last anecdote cited. However, in each case Rabi'a remains firmly
grounded in the realm of the profane.
Anecdotes of the second structural pattern are characterized by the exclu
sive pairing of Rabi'a with a divine manifestation, usually the mysterious caller,
or hatif, further removing her from the realm of the profane. From a chrono
logical perspective, anecdotes of this pattern were among the first to appear in
50 Ibid., 161.
51 Ibid.
written sources, preceding by several centuries the more active miracles, previ
ously discussed. Abf Talib al-Makki, writing in the tenth century, records one of
the earliest anecdotes of this type. According to the account in Qut al-qulaib,
Rabi'a related that once she had praised God all night, but with the coming of
dawn she fell asleep and dreamed of a beautiful tree, indescribable in its size
and beauty and adorned with three types of fruit unlike any known to this world.
When Rabi'a asked to whom the tree belonged, a voice told her it was hers.
Then, noticing that some of the fruits, which were the color of gold, were on the
ground, she remarked, "If these fruits were with the fruits on the tree, it would
be better." The voice then said, "They would have been there except when
you were praising God you were thinking, 'Has the dough risen or not?' and the
fruit fell off."52 This is the earliest known anecdote placing Rabi'a within a di
vine framework, and a very mediated one at that.53 Not only does Rabia 's expe
rience occur within the context of a dream, but also the voice that speaks to her
is unidentified. One can infer that the anecdote is set in heaven and that the
voice is a divine one. Thus, for the first time, at least in written sources, Rabi'a is
placed in a semidivine context. Moreover, this story also indicates that at this
time in her hagiographical development, corresponding to the tenth century,
Rabi'a was credited with kardmdt. This is supported in another contemporary
source, al-Sarraj's Kitdb al-Luma', in which Rabi'a is mentioned in a chapter on
rniracles.54
The theme denoting interaction between Rabi'a and some divine manifes
tation, usually in the form of a miracle, continues to appear and is elaborated
upon in later works. The eleventh-century author al-Qushayri is one of the first
to inject the concept of the unknown voice, hdtif, into anecdotes of Rabi'a.
Unlike the account in al-Makkls Qit al-qulub, in which the unidentified voice
is mediated through a dream, in al-Qushayri's Risalah the invisible caller stands
on his own in stark daylight. Al-Qushayri records that Rabi'a said, "Oh my Lord,
will you bur in Hell a heart that loves you?" and a voice called out to her,
"We will not do so. Do not presume in us an evil thought."55 Two trends are
discernible in this anecdote. The first is the introduction of the htif into an un
mediated context. The second revolves around the structure of the anecdote, in
which Rabi'a is rebuked by the htif. In contrast to anecdotes pairing Rabi'a
52 Al-Makid (cited in n. 2), 1:103.

53 Although the presence of a hatif in a dream does not necessarily constitute a specifically
divine site, this particular example does, I believe, imply a divine connection. The connection be
tween dreams and the divine is well documented in Islam. Moreover, Annemarie Schimmel has
noted that this connection is based on the Qur'an (39:42 and 6:60), which says that during sleep God
takes the spirit back into God's presence, and thus the spirit experiences direct contact with the
source of all wisdom. Annemarie Schimmel, Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Ap
proach to Islam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 123.
54 Al-Sarraj (cited in n. 20), 398.
55 Al-Qushayri (cited in n. 2), 2:264.
with a male religious figure in which she does the reproaching, in those that pair
her with an unknown, presumably divine voice, it is she who is chastised.
As will become clear, anecdotes of this pattern subvert the divine order by
allowing Rabi'a to circumvent the established hierarchy and to attain a personal
and direct linkage with the divine. The link 'Atar makes between RMbica and the
prophets (and more indirectly to the divine, as illustrated in the aforementioned
anecdotes involving miraculous light) is further strengthened through other
anecdotes that link her directly to the divine. The student of Islamic hagiog
raphy is well acquainted with the pattern of conversation between the Sufi and
either the Prophet or God.56 However, such conversations are mediated through
the use of various devices, such as a hatif, an animal, or an inanimate object, or
they are placed within the framework of a dream.
The use of the hdtif is found in several anecdotes that attempt to link Rabi'a
directly with the divine. For example, Rabi'a once fasted for seven days and
nights and then sought to break her fast with some food. However, when she
went to get a lamp, the food was overturned, forcing her to break her fast with
water. When she was about to take a drink of water, the jug slipped from her
hands and broke. Lamenting, Rabi'a exclaimed, "0 my God, why is it that you
are making me so helpless?" She then heard a voice say, "Beware, O Rabi'a! If
you wish I will bestow the bliss of the world upon you, but I will remove the
grief for me from your heart. The bliss of the world and grief for me cannot be
joined in one heart."57 Although, in this anecdote God is not explicitly identified
as the voice she hears, from the context of what is said there can be little doubt
as to who is speaking. On a structural level, the anecdote reflects the common
formula, at least in the case of Rabi'a, of a request followed by a reproach from
God. In this example, her chastisement is mediated through the hatif.
In contrast to this anecdote, which adheres to the request-reproach for
mula, the following anecdote differs slightly. Again, the voice Rabi'a hears is not
explicitly identified as God's, but it may be inferred from the context. According
to the story, Rabi'a, intending to make the pilgrimage, set out for the desert. She
crawled for seven years until she reached mount 'Arafat. A voice then called out,
"0 claimant, what quest has led you here? If you want me to manifest myself
just once, you will melt on the spot!" She then said, "0 lord of might, Rabi'a does
not have the means to attain that station. I wish only for a drop of poverty." The
voice then called out, "0 Rabi'a, poverty is the drought year of our wrath, which
we have placed in people's path. When no more than a hair's width remains
before they arrive in the presence of union with us, then the matter is turned
about and union is changed into separation. You are still within seventy veils of
your life. Until you come out from under all this, take a step on our path, and
pass these seventy stations, you cannot speak of our poverty. If not, behold!"
56 See, for example, ibid., 2:718-30.

57 'Atar (cited in n. 6), 165.
Rabi'a looked and saw a sea of blood suspended in the air. A voice called out,
"This is the blood of our lovers who came seeking union with us. They alighted
at the first way-station, so no trace or sign of them appears anywhere in the two
worlds." RAbi'a said, "0 lord of power, show me one characteristic of their es
tate." Immediately they appeared to her, making excuses. A voice spoke, "Their
first station is to crawl for seven years to come on our path to pay homage to a
clod of earth. When they near that clod, they themselves cause the road to be
closed before them." Rabi'a was afflicted and said, "0 Lord, you do not allow me
into your house. Nor will you let me stay in my house in Basra. Either leave me
in my house in Basra or bring me to your house in Mecca. At first, I did not bow
to the house-I wanted you. Now I am not even worthy of your house."58
What distinguishes this anecdote from others is the interplay of conver
sation that occurs between Rabi'a and the hdtif. Although Rabi'a is once again
reproached by the voice/God, the context in which that reproach occurs is one
of greater interaction. Moreover, not only does Rabi'a initiate the exchange with
her request, but also she has the last word, in contrast to other anecdotes, in
which God has the last word. Here it is Rabi'a's voice that frames the anecdote,
enclosing the mediated voice of God within it. Like other anecdotes pairing
Rabi'a with some divine manifestation, this one also takes the form of a repri
mand for Rabi'a while it also clearly establishes a strong link in the mind of the
reader between Rabi'a and the divine. This relationship is further strengthened
by some of her last lines: "0 Lord, you do not allow me into your house. Nor will
you let me stay in my house in Basra. Either leave me in my house in Basra or
bring me to your house in Mecca." The haughty tone of this statement suggests
a closeness between the speaker and God, for who but someone close to God
would dare speak so brazenly?
One final anecdote will illustrate the great efforts exerted to forge a clear
and direct relationship between Rabi'a and the divine. 'Atar relates that once
while Rabi'a was on her way to Mecca, she was left alone in the desert and said,
"My God, I am sore at heart. Where will I go? I am a clod of earth and that
house is a rock. I must have you." Then 'Attar states that "the real Most High ad
dressed her without intermediary: O Rabi'a, you wash in the blood of eighteen
thousand worlds. Don't you see that when Moses-peace be upon him-desired
a vision, we cast a few motes of self-manifestation upon the mountain and it
shattered into forty pieces!"59 Like the two anecdotes just examined, this one fol
lows the formula of a request followed by a rebuke by God. However, one very
important difference distinguishes this one from the others, namely, that in this
example God speaks directly to Rabi'a without an intermediary. In the anec
dote, the word al-.Haqq, or "the Real," commonly taken to be synonymous with
58 Ibid., 158-59.
59 Ibid., 157.
God, is employed.60 Thus, with a single step the entire divine hierarchy is in
verted. The woman Rabi'a, one to whom the religious laws are not even ad
dressed,6' is now addressed by God without intermediary. Not even the proph
ets were addressed directly. This direct relationship between Rabi'a and God,
which began to be forged in the tenth-century work Qit al-qulub and culmi
nates here, effectively moves Rabi'a to the head of the divine hierarchical line.
The direct link is further reinforced by the fact that Moses again appears in this
story, setting up a parallel between his request for a vision (which was granted)
and hers (which was not). Moreover, the placement of Moses in the narrative
once again associates Rabi'a with the prophets. Through this feat Rabi'a is,
in effect, moved from what should be a position of powerlessness, at the bot
tom of the social-divine hierarchy, to one from which she has direct access to the
divine.
Taken together, these three anecdotes seem to reveal Rabi'a's faults while
undeniably linking her with the divine. In each case, the voice of God, whether
mediated or not, reproaches Rabi'a for her impatience and her concern with the
things of this world. It is perhaps significant that only in these three anecdotes
is Rabi'a seen to ask something of her Lord. It is also only here that Rabi'a is
chastised-not by a man, but by God. This would seem to indicate that there
was a need to identify Rabi'a directly with God. However, in constructing such
stories it may have been deemed too irreverent to presume to bestow God's
favor upon a woman in a direct manner. Therefore, praise was replaced by cen
sure without sacrificing the intended purpose of the story, specifically, to con
nect Rabi'a with God and thereby justify her position as the saint par excellence.
The last anecdotal pattern to be discussed is that in which Rabi'a stands
alone, explicitly paired with neither man nor the divine. In general, anecdotes of
this pattern are relatively short and consist of the extraction of Rabi'a from a
problem through a miraculous feat. However, in contrast to the other two anec
dotal patterns, stories conforming to this last pattern do not subvert the es
tablished divine or social hierarchies, because the power over the miraculous
feat is explicitly located outside Rabi'a, rendering her merely the passive recipi
ent. Therefore, anecdotes of this pattern must be seen as denoting Rabi'a's gen
eral status as a waliya. This is borne out by the fact that, unlike the first two
anecdotal patterns, which appear to be specific to Rabi'a, anecdotes of this last
form are commonly found throughout the entire hagiographical corpus.
There exist a large number of anecdotes about Rabi'a that fall into this cate
gory. Because their structure and characteristics are virtually uniform, two ex
amples should suffice to illustrate the relevant points. The following two anec
dotes are both cited by al-Nabhani in his Jmi' karadmt al-awliyda^
60 Badawi's Arabic translation (cited in n. 46) reads as follows: saut min 'inda Allah tadala yaqul,
"a voice from God, may He be exalted, said" (p. 149).
61 See note 37.
In the first example, the story relates that Rabi'a had just planted the seeds
of her garden when a swarm of locusts descended upon it. Rabi'a called out,
"0 God, you have promised me my daily sustenance. If you wish, then feed it
to your enemies or your friends." At that moment the locusts flew away and it
was as if they never were.62 What is immediately evident in this anecdote is the
passivity of Rabi'a. In contrast to the other anecdotes examined, in which move
ment is connoted either verbally through conversation or physically through the
performance of a miraculous act, in this case Rabi'a is rendered virtually immo
bile. Rabi'a's only action is to issue her plea. Subsequent to this action she be
comes merely a passive witness to the event.
Rabi'a is likewise relegated to the status of a passive observer in the follow
ing anecdote: As Rabi'a was returning from the pilgrimage, her donkey died
before she could reach home. She asked God to keep it alive, and the donkey
was revived. Rabi'a then rode it until she reached the door of her house, where
upon the donkey fell dead.63 As in the previous anecdote, Rabi'a's actions are
severely circumscribed. She merely makes her plea; the miracle performed is
depicted as being outside her power. Moreover, she is even denied a direct voice
in this anecdote; it is related completely in the third person.
In each of the two examples cited, representative of this particular anec
dotal pattern, Rabi'a plays a relatively passive role. Her only action is to issue the
plea that allows for the manifestation of a divine act. Unlike the first two anec
dotal patterns, in which Rabi'a plays an active and primary role in the perpe
tration of the divine act, her role in this anecdotal pattern is of only secon
dary importance. Moreover, only in this anecdotal pattern is Rabi'a's distinctive
hagiographical persona subdued to such a degree that she is relegated to the
general category of a holy woman and not a saint par excellence. These anec
dotes attribute the performance of the miracle not to Rabi'a but strictly to God.
In effect, her ability to perform miracles is appropriated by God. This charac
teristic stands in distinct contrast to the first two anecdotal patterns, in which
Rabi'a is depicted as the primary performer of the miraculous act. Nevertheless,
anecdotes of this pattern do signify her spiritual distinction as well as "show up
and... show off certain realities." Specifically, they show off, through the mani
festation of a miraculous act, a sacred reality that aims "to change the categories
of perception and evaluation of the social world."64
In this article we have examined some aspects of the nexus that occurs be
tween the human and the divine through the manifestation of the phenomenon
known as a miracle. Through the analysis of three anecdotal patterns involving
the miracles of Rabi'a al-'Adawiya, we have seen how miracles in two of the
62 A-Nabhani (cited in n. 33), 2:71.

63 Ibid.
64 Bourdieu (cited in n. 25), 134.
three patterns represent subversions of the dominant social and divine hier
archies. It is unlikely merely coincidental that it is these specific types of mir
acles that distinguish Rabi'a from the general class of Islamic saints. The con
struction of Rabi'a into a saint par excellence necessitated that she stand above
her peers and next to God, and the miracles required to accomplish this feat, in
advertently or not, both inverted and subverted the hierarchy of the dominant
social and sacred discourses.
Rabi'a's hagiographical persona is among the most developed of Islamic
female saints, no doubt in part due to the relative availability of sources on her.
However, she is certainly by no means the only one. Numerous female saints
are found in Islamic hagiographic sources, and, like Rabi'a, they are revered and
credited with miracles.65 In the personas of such women we find traces of the
same inversions and subversions that are characteristic of Rabi'a. In fact, the
narratives of the female saints clearly reveal an ethos at odds with the andro
centric hierarchy of hegemonic Islam.
It is this aspect of the narratives of female saints, especially Rabi'a, that per
haps is most instructive for furthering the feminist study of Islam, for what these
narratives elucidate is an alternative sacred reality. Constructed on the level
of discourse, this reality refutes the one propounded by hegemonic Islamic
discourse. Whereas the reality of hegemonic Islam is hierarchical and man is al
ways superior to woman "in matters of religion or of this world,"6 this alterna
tive sacred reality is one of spiritual and intellectual equality in which biology is
subsumed to merit. In this sense it may be considered to represent a discourse
of resistance, which reflects the "Sufi emphasis on the inner and spiritual mean
ing of the Qur'an, and the underlying ethic and vision it affirm[s], [and] simi
larly counter[s] the letter-bound approach of orthodoxy."67 While it is beyond
the scope of this article to ascertain whether this reality was ever constructed on
a level other than that of discourse, the fact that it was elaborated at all is signifi
cant. What the literary elaboration of this alternative reality reveals is that the
mores of orthodox Islam were being engaged and rejected, at least on the level
of discourse. Thus, while RAbi'a may be problematic as an exemplar, she is sig
nificant in that her narratives elucidate an alternative reality, one that recre
ates and reforms the world according to priorities and aims vastly different from
those of hegemonic Islam.
65 E. Giirsoy-Naskali, '"Women Mystics in Islam," in Women in Islamic Societies: Social Atti

tudes and Historical Perspectives, ed. B. Utas (Copenhagen, 1983), 238-44. Giirsoy-Naskali has
noted that the difference between male and female Sufis is a quantitative one. Qualitatively, both
male and female Sufis were credited with miracles, and both were revered as saints.
66 Abui Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazai, Ihy' uliim al-din (Cairo: Mu'assasat
al-halabi wa shurakah lil-nashr wa al-tawzi, 1967-68), 4:514.
67 Ahmed (cited in n. 18), 96.

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Hierarchical Inversions, Divine Subversions: The Miracles of Râbiʿa al-ʿAdawîya

Out of the mists of the eighth century emerged a woman, a relatively ob

23 Ibid., 270, 276.

provide an adequate means of addressing issues of gender. Therefore, another

Bayan wa al-tabyin and once in al-.Hayawdn, although neither work includes

45 Peter J. Awn, "Sufism," Encyclopedia of Religion, 1st ed., 14:107.

47 Yisuf ibn Isma'il al-Nabhani, Jmi' kardnmat al-awliyd, 2:71.

52 Al-Makid (cited in n. 2), 1:103.

56 See, for example, ibid., 2:718-30.

62 A-Nabhani (cited in n. 33), 2:71.

65 E. Giirsoy-Naskali, '"Women Mystics in Islam," in Women in Islamic Societies: Social Atti

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