The Veil of Divine Preference

Rabia al-Adawiyya taught love of the Divine for its own sake, not for reward or fear of punishment. This radical non-attachment reveals how favoritism often masks itself as principle. When we favor certain people, we typically justify it through deserving, merit, or special circumstances—yet these are merely veils obscuring our true preferences. By examining our attachments without the lens of spiritual reward-seeking, we expose the arbitrary nature of our biases. Rabia's tradition invites us to question: whose loyalty do we truly earn, and whose do we take for granted? Recognizing the veil means acknowledging that favoritism costs us authentic belonging because it prevents us from seeing each person's intrinsic worth.