Arabic · noun · Character & Virtue

Adab

अदब
said A-dab
also written: adab, aadaab, courtesy
Meaning

Courtesy and right conduct; the refined spiritual etiquette the disciple observes toward God and master.

Literally: courtesy; spiritual etiquette; refinement

How Iqbal uses it

Adab — refined courtesy and, in the Sufi context, the disciplined etiquette of the heart: right conduct toward God, the guide and fellow seekers, the inner manners that shape the self. It is held to be the very substance of the path ("the whole of tasawwuf is adab"). Iqbal, heir to this ethic of refinement, sees the cultivation of adab as part of the disciplining and ennobling of the self.