IV. The Miracles of the Muslim Saints Rabi’a’s Miracles

Throughout Christendom, the saints of Islām, like the saints of Catholic Christendom, were expected to work miracles, as part of their claim to canonization, and their biographers were not slow to attribute to them the power of performing these karāmāt (lit. favours from God). It is hardly necessary to say that most of these miracles rest on no historic foundation and yet, like other legends of the saints, they have their value in throwing light upon the personality of the one to whom these wonderful powers are ascribed and still more perhaps, in shewing the high estimation in which such a saint was held. The Sufis themselves set little value upon the exercise of such miraculous powers. We are told that Abū Yazid al-Biştāmī said: The saints do not rejoice at the answers to prayers which are the essence of miracles, such as walking on water, and moving in the air and traversing the earth and riding on the heavens, since the prayers of unbelievers receive an answer and the earth contains both Satans and men, and the air is the abode of the birds, and the water of the fish. Let not anyone who is perplexed by such things, put any faith in this trickery. Of Abū Yazid it is also related that a man came to him and said, “I heard that you could pass through the air (fly)”. He said, “And what is there wonderful in this? A bird which eats the dead passes through^1,2 the air, and the believer is more honourable than a bird “. There is no lack of stories of miracles ascribed to Rabi’a of Başra, and in any account of her life these must find a place. Most of them tend to shew God’s care for His servant and her needs and to justify her complete dependence upon Him. ‘Attār has collected a number of these legendary stories, some of which are also to be found in other writers. He tells how one night a thief came into Rabi’a’s cell when she was asleep and took possession of her veil (in another account it is said that he tried to steal all her clothes). Then he attempted to get away with his booty, but could not find the way to the door. He put down the veil, and found the way again, so he seized the veil once more, but again failed to find the way out. He repeated this seven times, then from a corner of the cell came an unseen voice, saying, “ O man, do not trouble thyself since for all these years she has entrusted herself to Us and Satan has not had the courage to go round about her and shall a thief have courage to go round about her veil? Concern not thyself with her, O pickpocket, if one friend is asleep, another friend is awake and keeping watch”. And al-Munāwī in his version of the story adds, “This is true and certain, as God Most High has said: ‘There shall be angels in front of him (i.e. God’s servant), and behind him”. There is an anecdote given of provision for her^3,4,5,6,7 bodily needs, to indicate her faith in God’s promises, which is much more entertaining to the reader than her biographer can have intended it to be. He tells how two religious leaders came to visit Rabi’a. Both of them were hungry and said to one another, “Perhaps she will give us something to eat, because her food is always obtained from a lawful source”. When they sat down, a cloth containing two loaves was set before them and they were pleased. Before they had time to begin eating, a beggar came in and Rabi’a gave him both loaves. The two shaykhs felt annoyed but said nothing. After a time a slavegirl came in bearing a quantity of hot bread and said, “My mistress has sent this”. Rabi’a counted the loaves and found that there were eighteen and said, “I think she has not sent me these”, and whatever the slavegirl said was of no use. The slave-girl had brought all except two loaves, which she had taken out for herself; going away, she put the two loaves back in their place and then returned. Rabi’a counted the loaves again and found there were twenty. She said, “This is what you were ordered to bring”, and she set the loaves before her guests and they ate. They were astonished at the number of them and said, “What is the secret of this? We were wishing for your bread, before you took it up and gave it to the beggar. Then of that bread (which was sent you) you said that there were eighteen loaves and that they did not belong to you. When they became twenty, you took them”. She said: When you came in I knew you were hungry and I said, “How can I set two loaves before two honourable persons?” When the beggar came in, I gave them to him and I prayed to God Almighty, “O my Lord, Thou hast said that Thou wilt give ten for one, and I am sure of this. Now I have given two loaves for the sake of pleasing Thee in order that Thou mayest give me back ten for each of them”. When the eighteen loaves came,

I knew that either there was a deficiency due to misappropriation or that they were not meant for me. Another story, told quite naïvely by ‘Attār, is equally entertaining to the modern reader. He relates how on one occasion Rabi’a’s servant was going to prepare wild onions, because for some days they had not prepared any food, and she needed an onion, so the servant said, “I will go and ask for one from a neighbour”, but Rabi’a said, “Forty years ago I made an oath with God that I would not ask for anything except from Him. I can do without the onion”. Immediately after she had spoken a bird flying in the air dropped an onion — ready skinned — into Rabi’a’s frying-pan. But she was still doubtful and said, “I am not safe from a trick”(i.e. perhaps Satan had sent the onion), so she left the fried onion alone and ate bread without any seasoning. A much simpler and more probable account of this event is given by an earlier writer, who tells us that ‘Abd Allah b. ’Īsā said, “Rabi’a was boiling some food in a cooking pot and she needed an onion but had none, and there appeared a bird with a wild onion in its beak and threw it down to her”. There is an attractive story told of Rabi’a, containing an element of the miraculous, which seems as if it might be drawn from Buddhist sources, and reminds us of stories told of Prince Gautama. ‘Attār tells how one day Rabi’a had gone to the mountains and there a band of wild creatures gathered round her, deer and gazelle and mountain goats and wild asses, who came and looked at her and drew close to her. Suddenly Hasan al-Başrī appeared, and when he saw Rabi’a he approached her, and those wild creatures, when they saw Hasan, all fled away forthwith and Rabi’a was left^8,9,10 alone. Hasan was vexed when he saw that, he looked at Rabi’a and said, “Why did they flee in terror from me, while they were friendly with you?” Rabi’a said, “What have you eaten to-day?” He said, “Some onions (fried) in fat”. She said, “You eat of their fat, how should they not flee from you?” Al-Munāwī says that among Rabi’a’s karāmāt it was related that she had sown corn and the locusts fell upon it, and she prayed, “O my Lord, this is my provision, upon which I have spent money, and if Thou willest, I will give it as food to Thine enemies or Thy friends”. Then the locusts flew away as if they had never existed. The same writer relates a miracle which is perhaps a variant of a story told previously of how Rabi’a went on pilgrimage, on a camel, and it died before she reached her destination, and she asked God to restore it to life. It recovered and she rode it until she reached the door of her own house. An amusing legend is told of how Hasan of Başra tried to exploit Rabi’a’s power of working miracles for his own glory but only succeeded in reaping a rebuke for his vanity. One day he saw Rabi’a near the river-side, Hasan cast his prayer-mat on to the surface of the water and said, “ O Rabi’a, come and let us pray two raka’s together “, evidently counting on her powers to keep the carpet from sinking. Rabi’a said,” O Hasan, was it necessary to offer yourself in the bazaar of this world to the people of the next? (i.e. was it needful to seek to win worldly reputation by a spiritual gift?) This is necessary for people of your kind, because of your weakness “. Then Rabi’a threw her prayer-mat into the air and flew^{11,12,13,14,15} up on to it and said, “ O Hasan, come up here that people may see us “. But that station was not for Hasan and he was silent. Rabi’a, wishing to gain his heart (to comfort him), said,” O Hasan, that which you did, a fish can do just the same, and that which I did, a fly can do. The real work (for the saints of God) lies beyond both of these and it is necessary to occupy ourselves with the real work “. Another story tells of a miracle which has perhaps a mystical significance. One night Hasan and two or three friends are said to have come to Rabi’a and she had no lamp and she desired for them an illuminated heart. Rabi’a blew upon the tips of her fingers, and throughout that night, until daylight came, her fingers gave forth light like a lamp, and they sat until morning in that illumination. Her biographer adds by way of comment: If anyone were to say,” How was this? “I should say it was like the hand of Moses, and if it should be observed that he was a prophet, I should say,” Whoever obeys a prophet may obtain as his reward a share in the gift of prophecy “. So the Prophet has said,” He who restores a small part of what was obtained unlawfully, has obtained one degree of prophecy “. Yet another legend, proving that God provided for Rabi’a’s needs when she herself was occupied in His service, tells how Hasan went one day to Rabi’a at the time of the second prayer of the day, when she was preparing to cook some meat in a pan and was putting water into it. He goes on to say: When she came to speak to me she said,” This discourse is better than anything cooked in a pan “, so she went on talking till we performed the evening prayer. She brought a piece of dry bread and a jug of water that we might break our fast. Rabi’a then went to take off the pan and burnt her hand; we looked and there was the pan boiling and bubbling over, by the power¹⁶ of God Most High. She brought it and we ate of that meat and the food composed of that meat was the pleasantest we had ever tasted. Rabi’a said, “The food from that pan would have been suitable for an invalid just convalescent”. Rabi’a herself disclaimed these miraculous powers and was anxious to avoid a reputation for working miracles. We are told of an interesting conversation between her and Zulfa bint ‘Abd al-Wahid, who addresses Rabi’a as her aunt, while Rabi’a calls her her brother’s daughter. If this represents a genuine relationship and not merely a term of affection, it is of great interest, as Zulfa is the only one of Rabi’a’s own family who is mentioned by name by any of her biographers, nor have we any mention elsewhere of a brother of Rabi’a. But the terms “aunt” and “niece” are still used in the East as terms of endearment without any real relationship between the parties concerned. Zulfa is reported to have said: I said to Rabi’a, “O my aunt, why do you not allow people to visit you?” Rabi’a replied, “I fear lest when I am dead, people will relate of me what I did not say or do, what if I had seen, I should have feared or mistrusted. I am told that they say that I find money under my place of prayer, and that I cook (food) in the pot without a fire”. I said to her, “They relate of you that you find food and drink in your house”, and she said, “O daughter of my brother, if I had found such things in my house I would not have touched them, or laid hands upon them, but I tell you that I buy my things and am blessed in them”. These anecdotes of Rabi’a are trivial in themselves, but they shew that her biographers believed that she had the power to work miracles, attributed to all true^17,18 saints of Islām, and moreover, that miracles were wrought on her behalf, that God might justify his servant in the eyes both of friends and enemies, and as ‘Attār’s own comment shews, these miracles, wrought by, or for her, indicated to all who heard of them that the grace of God was with her.¹⁹