Arabic · noun · Love & Longing

Haya

हया
said ha-YAA
also written: haya, hayaa, haia
Meaning

Modesty, bashful reserve; the becoming shyness prized in the beloved.

Literally: modesty, a sense of shame that restrains

How Iqbal uses it

Haya is the inner modesty that holds a person back from what is base or shameless. Iqbal counts it among the protective virtues of the self: a living conscience feels shame before wrong, and the loss of haya marks a coarsening of the soul. He treats this sensitivity to honour and propriety as a sign of an undimmed inner life rather than mere social etiquette.