Persian · noun · Love & Longing

Jafa

जफ़ा
said ja-FAA
also written: jafaa, jafa-e, Jafaa
Meaning

Cruelty, unkindness, the beloved's harsh treatment of the faithful lover.

Literally: cruelty, oppression, tyranny (of the beloved)

Usage & notes

Jafa is the cruelty of the beloved — the studied unkindness, the wounds inflicted with a careless beauty. The ghazal turns it into something almost cherished: the lover begs for the beloved's jafa, since even cruelty is a form of attention, better than indifference. To suffer jafa and stay faithful is the lover's strange triumph, proof that love asks nothing back.