Rabia, sick upon her bed,
By two saints was visited:
Holy Malik, Hassan wise,
Men of mark in Moslem eyes.
Hassan said: "Whose prayer is pure
Will God's chastisement _endure_."
Malik, from a deeper sense,
Uttered his experience:
"He who loves his Master's choice
Will in chastisement _rejoice_."
Rabia saw some selfish will
In their maxims lingering still,
And replied: "O men of grace!
He who sees his Master's face
"Will not in his prayer recall
That he is chastised at all."
--Arabian, tr. by James Freeman Clarke, from the German of Tholuck.
(Rabia was a very holy Arabian woman who lived in the second century of
the Hegira, or the eighth century of our era.)