Sufism

Rabia al-Basri refused to marry, saying her whole self already belonged to God

Rabia's refusal of marriage functioned as a public theological statement, not a private lifestyle choice, asserting that total devotion to God left no legitimate claim for anyone else on her.

Attar's Tadhkirat al-Awliya, a twelfth-century hagiographical collection profiling major early Sufi figures, includes an entry on Rabia al-Basri, the celebrated woman ascetic of eighth-century Basra, recounting that she turned down marriage proposals, in some accounts from prominent suitors, on the grounds that her entire self was already given over to God and could not be divided. This was a striking claim within a society where marriage was close to a default expectation, and Attar preserves it as evidence of the totality of her devotion rather than as social eccentricity. The refusal functions in the Tadhkirat as an enacted version of the theological point Rabia is most remembered for: that love of God admits no rival claims, financial, social, or romantic, once it has become the organizing center of a life. Her example set a template later Sufi biographical literature returned to repeatedly when illustrating what undivided devotion could look like in practice, not just in doctrine.

Rabia is widely regarded as the earliest major figure to articulate disinterested love of God as a distinct spiritual ideal, predating the more systematized love-mysticism of later Sufi writers by centuries.

Tadhkirat al-Awliya