Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian Literature, Arts and Culture
Gifts of the Masters
These traditions come from Farid ud din
Attar a later sufi saint and poet, who used
earlier sources. Rabia herself though has not
left any written works.
In this segment, we run poems from some of the
greatest literary masters that ever lived.
GWENDOLYN BROOKS
After her father's death, there was a
famine in Basra, and during that she was
parted from her family. It is not clear how she
was traveling in a caravan that was set upon
by robbers. She was taken by the robbers and
sold into slavery.
The Crazy Woman
I shall not sing a May song.
A May song should be gay.
I'll wait until November
And sing a song of gray.
I'll wait until November
That is the time for me.
I'll go out in the frosty dark
And sing most terribly.
Her master worked her very hard, but at
night after finishing her chores Rabia would
turn to meditation and prayers and praising
the Lord. Foregoing rest and sleep she spent
her nights in prayers and she often fasted
during the day.
And all the little people
Will stare at me and say,
"That is the Crazy Woman
Who would not sing in May."
My Beloved
My peace, O my brothers and sisters, is my
solitude,
And my Beloved is with me always,
For His love I can find no substitute,
And His love is the test for me among mortal
beings,
Whenever His Beauty I may contemplate,
He is my "mihrab", towards Him is my "qiblah"
If I die of love, before completing
satisfaction,
Alas, for my anxiety in the world, alas for my
distress,
O Healer (of souls) the heart feeds upon its
desire,
The striving after union with Thee has healed
my soul,
O my Joy and my Life abidingly,
You were the source of my life and from
Thee also came my ecstasy.
I have separated myself from all created
beings,
My hope is for union with Thee, for that is the
goal of my desire
There Are The Words That Couldn’t Be
Twice Said
There are the words that couldn’t be twice
said,
He, who said once, spent out all his senses.
Only two things have never their end –
The heavens’ blue and the Creator’s
mercy.
Anna Akhmatova
.
Rābiʻa al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya (or simply
Rabiʿah al-Basri) was a female Muslim saint
and Sufi mystic.
Not much is known about Rabia al Basri,
except that she lived in Basra in Iraq, in the
second half of the 8th century AD. She was
born into poverty. But many spiritual stories
are associated with her and what we can
glean about her is reality merged with
legend.
Rabia al Basri
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