Persian · noun, masculine · The Tavern & the Cup

Badah-khwaar

बादा-ख़्वार

said baa-dah-khwaar

also written: Badahkhwar, badah-khwar, baadah khwaar

Meaning

A wine-drinker; one devoted to the cup, often the free-spirited lover of the tavern.

Literally: wine-eater, wine-drinker

How Iqbal uses it

The baadah-khwaar is the wine-drinker — and in mystical verse the lover steeped in the wine of divine love, kin to the rind. Far from a reproach, the title is worn as a badge against the sober hypocrisy of the zahid. Iqbal's ideal drinker is intoxicated with love yet wide awake, his drunkenness a source of courage and creative fire.

See it in the verse

Badah-khwaar in Iqbal’s couplets

Sitara kya meri taqdir ki khabar dega
Wo khud farakhi-e-aflak mein hai khwar o zubun

What can a star tell me of my destiny? It is itself helpless and lowly in the vast reach of the skies.

Selfhood · Freedom · Courage

Related words

PERSIAN

Rind

The libertine or free-spirited reveller who flouts pious convention; in Sufi verse, the true lover of God.

PERSIAN

Mai-kashi

Wine-drinking; the practice of imbibing, used metaphorically for the pursuit of divine love.

PERSIAN

Baadah

Wine; the classic Persian-poetic term for the intoxicant of divine love.

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