In My Soul

By Rabia

In my soul
there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church
where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar
where no walls or names exist.
Is there not a region of love where the
sovereignty is illumined nothing,
where ecstasy gets poured into itself
and becomes lost,
where the wing is fully alive
but has no mind or body?

In my soul
there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque,
a church
that dissolve, that
dissolve in
God.

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Rabia of Basra (c. 717-801) is without a doubt the most popular and influential of female Islamic saints and a central figure in the Sufi tradition. She lived 500 years before Rumi, and more than any other, influenced his writings.

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