2.7.2.1 - Some of Her Characteristics

He states in the Meccan Revelations that she had a special state with God, and he served her for several years, and she was at the time of his service over ninety-five years old, yet she had noticeable grace and gentleness, “as if she was a fourteen-years old girl”, so he was feeling shy to look at her face even at this age, for her red cheeks and good grace and beauty. Then he says that she used to prefer him over whoever was serving her, and she says: I saw no one like him, because when comes to us he does not think of anything else, and also when he leaves, nothing of him remains with us (i.e. he has no other purpose).

In al-Durrah al-Fakhirah, Shaykh Muhyiddin says that at first she had earned her living on a spindle. Then it occurred to her to earn her keep by hand-spinning, but God caused her spinning finger to become crippled from the moment she started on the work. I had noticed the finger and had asked her about it. She then told me the story and told me that she had, from that day relied upon the scraps of food thrown frompeople’s houses. She came to the Way while still a young girl living in her father’s house. I met her when she was already ninety-six years of age.

He also adds that she had married a righteous man whom God had afflicted with leprosy. She served him happily for twenty-four years until he was taken to Gods mercy. When she became hungry and no scraps or offerings of food came her way she would be content and thank God for His favor in that he was subjecting her to that to which He had subjected his prophets and Saints. She would say, O Lord, how can I deserve this great position in that You treat me as You treated Your loved ones?

In the Meccan Revelations, the Shaykh also adds that he heard her once saying: I wondered how someone says that he loves God, and yet he does not rejoice in witnessing, while He is always manifesting right in front of his eye for him to be looking, at each glance, he does not miss the blink of an eye, but how then these “lovers” are crying and they are claiming love and cry! Are they not ashamed? If His closeness is closer than those who are close to him, and the lover is the closest person to Him, and He is the Witnessed. For whom they are crying then!

Then she used to refer to Ibn al-Arabi and ask him, “O my son, what’s your opinion on what I am saying?” He says to her: “O my mother, what you say is right”.

Then Shaykh Muhyiddin adds that she often used to play the tambourine and rejoice, thus when he exclaimed about that, she tells him: I am rejoicing with Him, because He is took care of me and selected me out from other people of my kind, and He made me for Himself [Futuhat: II.348].

Then in the Holy Spirit he says: when I met her, she was in her nineties, and only ate the scraps left by people at their doors. Although she was so old and ate so little, I was almost ashamed to look at her face when I sat with her, so rosy and soft. He also adds that he, together with two of his companions, built a hut of reeds for her to live in. She used to say: Of those who come to see me, I admire none more than Ibn Al-Arabi. On being asked the reason for this she replied: The rest of you come to me with part of yourselves, leaving the other part of you occupied with your other concerns, while Ibn al-Arabi is a consolation to me, for he comes to me with all of himself. When he rises up it is with all of himself and when he sits it is with his whole self, leaving nothing of himself elsewhere. That is how it should be on the Way.

In al-Durrah, Shaykh Muhyiddin explains further that: One day I built a hut for her of palm branches in which to perform her devotions. That same night the oil in her lamp ran out, something which had never happened to her before. I never learned the secret of that from her. She got up to open the door to ask me to bring her some more oil and, in the darkness, plunged her hand into some water in the bucket(?) underneath her.1 At this she cursed and the water was immediately changed into oil. She then took the jug and filled it with the oil, lit the lamp and came back to see from where the oil had come. When she saw no further trace of oil she realized that it had been a provision from God.

Ibn al-Arabi adds that although God offered to her His Kingdom, she refused, saying: You are all, all else is inauspicious for me. Her devotion to God was profound. Looking at her in a purely superficial way one might have thought she was a simpleton, to which she would have replied that he who knows not his Lord is the real simpleton.