The modern Arab poets have employed the motif of woman in their works to tell about various inferences. Indeed, in many works, the woman has played the role of an objective formula through which the modern Arab poets conveyed his idea as if the woman were a mask. In fact, the woman is shown as a wide-ranging icon that helps the writer attain great ambitions and change the world around him. This image of the woman is influenced by the female character as depicted by medieval Ṣūfī writers who regarded the woman as one of the major foundations of their writing. The medieval Ṣūfī writers’ belief is best compressed in an amazing statement attributed to the medieval Ṣūfī thinker, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī, (26 July 1165 – 16 November 1240) who says, "In order for a man to reach the absolute, that is, God, he must go through femininity” (Iben Arabī 2001 36). Consequently, Ṣūfī poets would select their female characters, give them glamorous names, and make them the target of their writings. The content of the Ṣūfī practices centered on love and craving. They considered their created woman their earthly mistress who aided them to reach their supreme lover, God. Take for example ‘Aisha created by `Umar al-Khayyām (1048-1131) and 'Ayn ash-Shams, Nazzām, to whom Iben Arabī dedicated his poetry.

These Ṣūfī rituals have profoundly impacted modern-day Arab poets who employed the same notion about femininity in their literary works. The list of modern poets who made use of Ṣūfī practices including women as Ṣūfī motifs is lengthened and includes notable figures like the Iraqi poet Abdul Wahāb al-Bayyātī, the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwīsh and the Egyptian free verse poet, editor, playwright and essayist Salāḥ Abdel Sabūr (1931-1981).

Scholars interested in this topic are requested to study the works of modern Arab poets to answer why these writers are attracted to the Ṣūfī image of woman and how the Ṣūfī treatment of women in modern Arabic literature offers new insights into the dynamic potential of the motif and a new critical approach.