Arabic · noun · Love & Longing

Kaif

कैफ़

Meaning

Ecstasy, intoxication, blissful rapture.

Literally: State, condition; intoxication.

How Iqbal uses it

Kaif is the wine-like rapture of love and mystic absorption — the heady state that lifts the lover beyond himself. It belongs with sarmasti in the imagery of ecstatic intoxication.

See it in the verse

Kaif in Iqbal’s couplets

Sai-e-paiham hai taraazu-e-kam-o-kaif-e-hayat
Teri mizan hai shumar-e-sahar-o-sham abhi

Ceaseless striving is the true scale for the measure and quality of a life; you, so far, still weigh life by the count of mornings and evenings.

Action · Aspiration · Restlessness

Related words

PERSIAN

Sarmasti

Utter intoxication, the rapturous abandon of one drunk with love.

ARABIC

Lazzat

Pleasure, relish, savour; the taste of enjoyment.

PERSIAN

Mastana

Intoxicated, drunk with love or ecstasy; carefree in rapture.

← Back to the dictionary