Today I was directed to this excellent blogsite devoted to Rabia Basri’s poems – found this bold poem by Rabia, an early Sufi from Iraq and one the better known women Sufi poet:
O my Lord,
if I worship you
from fear of hell, burn me in hell.If I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.But if I worship you
for yourself alone, grant me then the beauty of your Face.
Read about Rabia Basri: