Sha'wana

Sha'wana was a devout woman of al-Ubulla; Ibn al-Jawzi opens his "chosen women ascetics of al-Ubulla" with her in Sifat al-Safwa (no. 630). ¹ She held a gathering that devotees attended, and her reports centre on weeping out of fear of God. ²

From Mu'adh ibn al-Fadl: she wept until they feared she would go blind, and she said, "To be blind in this world from weeping is dearer to me than to be blinded in the next by the Fire." ¹ From Malik ibn Daygham: a man of al-Ubulla described her weeping to his father, who said, "I see that fear has burned up her whole heart"; it used to be said that many or few tears follow how far the heart has burned. ²

Malik ibn Daygham relates that he visited her with Manbudh Abu Hammam; she welcomed him and said she longed to see his father but held back for fear of distracting him from the service of his Lord; then she said, "And who is Sha'wana? What is Sha'wana? A black, sinning slave-woman," and wept until they left. ² Yahya ibn Bistam relates that he visited her with a companion in a shabby house; when they suggested she be gentle with herself she said she wished she could weep until her tears ran out and then weep blood, until she fainted. ²

Rawh ibn Salama reports Mudar saying he never saw anyone with greater strength for weeping, nor heard a voice that burned the hearts of the fearful more than hers when she cried out, "O dead, and sons of the dead, and brothers of the dead!" ² Abu Umar the blind preserved one saying of hers: "Whoever of you can weep, let him weep; otherwise let him have mercy on the one who weeps, for the one who weeps weeps only because he knows what he has brought upon himself." ² She would repeat lines of verse on the delusion of hope, making the ascetics weep with her. ³

From al-Fudayl ibn Iyad: he came to her, complained to her of his state and asked her to pray for him; she said, "Fudayl, is there nothing between you and God such that if you called on Him He would answer you?" He gasped and fell in a faint. ³ It is related that grief once wore her down until she stopped her devotions, and in a dream someone recited to her two lines urging her to strive, so she returned to her work. From Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Malik: she came to Mecca with her husband and they circled the Ka'ba together, and she would say in Persian that every illness has a remedy growing in the mountains, but the remedy of lovers has not grown there. ³

Among the women of Basra Ibn al-Jawzi lists Kurdawiyya bint Amr, who served her. ⁴