Namaste
Rabia al-Adawiyya
Rabi'a al-Adawiyya was a Sufi saint and her most famous poem beautifully expresses my own spiritual devotion to my Maker.
Shortly after I became a Christian during my senior year in high school, I was disappointed one evening when a famous evangelist appeared on TV and uttered the following words:
"Do you want to go to Heaven? Do you want Salvation?"
His words as a fellow Christian filled me with such disappointment that I had to turn the channel. I felt that our Maker deserved much more than mercenary loyalty... more than a tit-for-tat relationship. Indeed, our Maker deserves our unconditional love.
Years later, I discovered that Rabi'a al-Adawiyya expressed my sentiments perfectly in the following prayer:
Oh my Lord, if I worship Thee from fear of Hell, send me there;
Oh my Lord, if I worship Thee from desire for Paradise, exclude me thence;
But if I worship Thee for Thine Own sake, hide not from me Thine Eternal Beauty.
