Only
this one thought causes me disquiet; it is that I know not if Thou art
satisfied with me." She then heard a voice, "Vex not thyself, O Rabia,
for at the day of Resurrection We shall give thee such a rank that the
angels nearest Us shall envy thee." Rabia went home with her heart at
peace.

One night, Rabia's master being awake, heard the sound of her voice. He
perceived Rabia with her head bent, saying, "My Lord, Thou knowest that
the desire of my heart is to seek Thy approbation, and that its only
wish is to obey Thy commands. If I had liberty of action, I would not
remain a single instant without doing Thee service; but Thou hast
delivered me into the hands of a creature, and therefore I am hindered
in the same." Her master said to himself that it was not possible any
longer to treat her as a slave, and as soon as daybreak appeared, he
said to her, "O Rabia, I make thee free. If thou desirest, remain here,
and we shall be at thy service. If thou dost not wish to stay here,
go whithersoever it pleaseth thee."

Then Rabia departed from them and devoted herself entirely to works of
piety. One day when she was making the pilgrimage to the Kaaba[9] she
halted in the desert and exclaimed, "My God, my heart is a prey to
perplexity in the midst of this solitude. I am a stone, and so is the
Kaaba; what can it do for me? That which I need is to contemplate Thy
face." At these words a voice came from the Most High, "O Rabia, wilt
thou bear alone that which the whole world cannot? When Moses desired to
see Our Face we showed It to a mountain, which dissolved into a thousand
fragments."

Abda, the servant maid of Rabia, relates as follows, "Rabia used to pass
the whole night in prayer, and at morning dawn she took a light sleep
in her oratory till daylight, and I have heard her say when she sprang
in dread from her couch, 'O my soul, how long wilt thou sleep? Soon thou
shalt sleep to rise no more, till the call shall summon thee on the day
of resurrection.'"

Hasan Basri once asked Rabia if she ever thought of marrying. She
answered, "The marriage contract can be entered into by those who have
possession of their free-will. As for me, I have no will to dispose of;
I belong to the Lord, and I rest in the shadow of His commandments,
counting myself as nothing." "But," said Hasan, "how have you arrived at
such a degree of piety?" "By annihilating myself completely."

Being asked on another occasion why she did not marry, s