The Disease of Preference

Rabia al-Adawiyya taught that true devotion requires complete detachment from preference and personal preference—including favoritism toward certain people or groups. In her Sufi tradition, the 'disease of preference' emerges when the heart becomes infected with ego's need to elevate some beings above others, fragmenting the unified love that flows from God through all creation. This disease manifests when we unconsciously favor those who flatter us, resemble us, or benefit us materially. What it costs is spiritual clarity: favoritism blinds us to the intrinsic worth in those we dismiss, and it poisons community by creating hierarchies of belonging. Rabia's cure was radical indifference to worldly consequences—loving the orphan and the powerful equally because both carry the divine image. Recognizing favoritism as a spiritual ailment, rather than a mere social preference, shifts our responsibility from managing appearances to healing the fractured heart.