Urdu Dictionary

Persian · noun · Love & Longing

Naaz

नाज़

said NAAZ

also written: naz, naaze

Meaning

Coquetry, graceful pride, the beloved's charming disdain and airs.

Literally: coquetry, graceful pride, blandishment

How Iqbal uses it

Naaz is the beloved's sweet arrogance — the playful pride, the airs and graces of one who knows she is adored and makes the lover wait. It is the power the beautiful hold over the loving: a toss of the head, a withheld smile. The ghazal sets naaz (the beloved's pride) against niyaz (the lover's humble pleading); their interplay is the whole choreography of courtship, and in the divine reading, the Beloved's lordly self-sufficiency before the supplicant soul.

See it in the verse

Naaz in Iqbal’s couplets

Khudi ki shokhi-o-tundi mein kibr-o-naaz nahin
Jo naaz ho bhi to be-lazzat-e-niyaz nahin

There is no arrogance or vanity in the spirited fierceness of selfhood — and any pride it does carry is never without the sweetness of humility.

Selfhood · Humility

Hai Ram ke vajood pe Hindostan ko naaz
Ahl-e-nazar samajhte hain us ko imam-e-Hind

India takes pride in the very existence of Ram; those of discerning sight regard him as the spiritual leader of India.

Related words

Niyaz

Humble supplication, the lover's abasement and entreaty before the beloved.

Adaa

A charming gesture or coquettish grace; a beautiful, expressive manner.

Ghamza

An amorous sidelong glance, a wink or coquettish flicker of the eye.

Taghaful

Deliberate inattention or feigned negligence by the beloved, who pretends not to notice the lover.

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