In Sufism, longing is considered to be not just a quality within women, but the state of every soul before God, the pull of the soul to come Home and be united with her Beloved. Longing draws into itself the love of God, like a magnet. The soul cries for God as an echo of God's longing for us, and God answers. For women, this longing is a natural state of being and manifests on many levels in a way men's longing does not.
Longing is the way women live . . . Longing carries the feminine qualities of openness and the power of attraction as it is lived through the passion and sometimes also the suffering of love.
— Hilary Hart, The Unknown She