Quote by Rabi`a al `Adawiyya

I carry a torch in one hand

And a bucket of water in the other:

With these things I am going to set fire to Heaven

And put out the flames of Hell,

So that voyagers to God can rip the veils

And see the real goal.

― Rābiʻah al-ʻAdawīyah

Rābiʻa al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya or simply Rābiʿah al-Baṣrī (Arabic: رابعة البصري‎) (717–801 C.E.) was a female Muslim saint. 

She was born between 95 and 99 Hijri in Basra, Iraq which is ~715 Julian . Much of her early life is narrated by Farid ud-Din Attar, a later Sufi Saint and poet, who used earlier sources. Rabia herself did not leave any written works.

She was the fourth daughter of her family and therefore named Rabia, meaning "fourth". Although not born into slavery, her family was poor yet respected in the community.

According to Farid ud-Din Attar, Rabia's parents were so poor that there was no oil in house to light a lamp, nor a cloth even to wrap her with. Her mother asked her husband to borrow some oil from a neighbour, but he had resolved in his life never to ask for anything from anyone except the Creator. He pretended to go to the neighbour's door and returned home empty-handed.