She was born in 714 A.D in Basra (Iraq), where she spent the greater part of her life. She was born in the poorest of homes, miraculous events were reputed to have taken place even at the time of her birth. At the night of her birth there was no oil on the house, no lamp nor swaddling clothes in which to rap the newborn child. Her father already had three daughters, and so she was called Rabia (the fourth). The mother asked her husband to go and ask for oil for the lamp from a neighbour, but he had made a vow that he would never ask anything of a creature (as a true Sufi he would depend only upon God to supply his needs), and so he came back without it. Having fallen asleep in great distress at the lack of provision for the child, he dreamt that the Prophet Muhammad appeared to him in his sleep and said: "'Do not be sorrowful, for this daughter who is born is a great saint, whose intercession will be desired by seventy thousand of my community". The Prophet said further: "Tomorrow send a letter to Isa Zadhan, Amir of Basra, reminding him that 'You offer Durud to me (The Holy Prophet ) one hundred times every night and four hundred times every Thursday night. But this Thursday night you neglected me, as a penalty you must pay the bearer four hundred dinars.'" Hazrat Rabia's father got up and went straight to the Amir, with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. The Amir was delighted on receiving the message and knowing that he was in the eyes of the Prophet he distributed in gratitude one thousand dinars to the poor and paid with joy four hundred to Rabia's father and requested him to come to him whenever he required anything as he will benefit very much by the visit of such a soul dear to the Lord"

When Rabia was a little older her mother and father died and she was left an orphan. A famine occurred in Basra and the sisters were scattered. One day an evil-minded man saw her and seized upon her and sold her as a slave for six dirhams and the man who bought her made her work hard. One night her master awoke from sleep and looked down through a window of the house and saw Rabia, whose head was bowed in worship, and she was saying: "O my Lord, you know that the desire of my heart is to obey you, and that the light of my eye is in the service of your court. If the master let me rested, I should not cease for one hour from your service, but you have made me subject to a creature." While she was still praying, her master saw a lap above her had, suspended without a chain, and the whole house was illuminated by the rays from that light. Rabia's master saw that strange sight, became afraid and returned to his own place and sat pondering until day came. When the day dawned, he called Rabia and spoke kindly to her and set her free. Rabia asked for leave to go away; so he gave her leave, and she left that place and journeyed into the desert.

One day she said to God: "If I worship You for the fear of hell burn me therein, and if I worship You for the hope of paradise, exclude me there-from, but if I worship you for Your own sake then withhold not from me Your Eternal Beauty."
She never married, once a man desired to marry her. She replied by thanking him for his proposal and said that she has no room in her heart for any other love besides God.

Some one asked her that how did she attain to the rank of the saints? Hazrat Rabia replied: "By abandoning what did not concern me & by seeking fellowship with God who is eternal."

One day Hazrat Rabia was hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other. When people asked her to that where is she going?, she said: "I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..."

At one occasion she was asked if she hated Satan? Hazrat Rabia replied: "My love to God has so possessed me that no place remains for loving or hating any save Him."

When Hazrat Rabia Basri would not come to attend the sermons of Hazrat Hasan Basri, he would deliver no discourse that day. People in the audience asked him why he did that. He replied: "The syrup that is held by the vessels mean for the elephants cannot be contained in the vessels meant for the ants."

Hazrat Rabia Basri died in 801 CE in Basra (Iraq).

Once, some one sold Hazrat Rabia to a professional prostitute, as Hazrat Rabia was a beautiful lady. The prostitute made her to sit in her prostitution house, where she sent some male client into the room of Rabia. Hazrat Rabia asked the male that before coming close to her first he must make Wudhu (ablution). When that male made Wudhu, Hazrat Rabia then asked the male to perform two raka't Salat (prayer), when the male started to perform Salat (prayer), Hazrat Rabia gave Tawajja-e-Batin (Spiritual attention) to him, and when that male finished the Salat (prayer), he was completely changed. Every night the prostitute sent a male to Hazrat Rabia's room, and Hazrat Rabia did the same to him, as she had done to earlier one. The prostitute became very surprised to see that whenever she sends a client to Hazrat Rabia, he would become pious & never turns back to the prostitution house. So one night the prostitute secretely peeped through the window, and in the morning she fell on the feet of Hazrat Rabia & apologized that she didn't know about your reality, now she are free. Hazrat Rabia replied: "You are freeing me, but you are also stopping the process of Faidh (Spiritual Benefit) to many people who are misguided & come to your home for wrong purpose."

Once Hazrat Rabia was on her way to Makka, and when half-way there she saw the Ka'ba coming to meet her and she said" "It is the Lord of the house whom I need, what have I to do with the house? I need to meet with Him Who said, 'Whose approaches Me by a span's length I will approach him by the length of a cubit.' The Ka'ba which I see has no power over me; what joy does the beauty of the Ka'ba bring to me?"

At the same time the great Sufi Saint Hazrat Ibrahim bin Adham arrived at the Ka'ba, he did not see it.(As he spent fourteen years making his way to the Ka'ba, because in every place of prayer he performed two raka'ts).

Hazrat Ibrahim bin Adham said: "Alas! What has happened? It maybe that some injure has overtaken my eyes." An unseen voice said to him: "No harm has befallen your eyes, but the Ka'ba has gone to meet a woman, who is approaching this place." Ibrahim Adham said: "O indeed, who is this?" He ran, and saw Rabia arriving and the Ka'ba was back in its own place, when Ibrahim saw that, he said: "O Rabia, what is this disturbance and trouble and burden which you have brought into the world?" She replied: "I have not brought disturbance into the world, it is you who have disturbed the world, because you delayed fourtenen years in arriving at the Ka'ba." He said: "Yes I have spent fourteen years in crossing the desert (because I was engaged) in prayer." Rabia said: "You traversed it in ritual prayer (Salat) but with personal supplication." Then, having performed the pilgrimage, she returned to Basra and occupied herself with works of devotion.

One day Hazrat Hasan Basri saw Hazrat Rabia near a lake. He threw his prayer rug on top of the water and said: "Rabia come! Let us pray two raka'ts here." She replied: "Hasan, when you are showing off your spiritual goods in the worldly market, it should be things which your fellow men cannot display." Then she threw her prayer rug into the air and flew up onto it by saying: "Come up here, Hasan, where people can see us." Then she said: "Hasan, what you did fishes can do, and what I did flies can do. But the real business is outside these tricks. One must apply oneself to the real business."