Wine, especially the reddish or amber vintage; a poetic name for the draught of love.
Literally: reddish or aged wine
Sahba is an elevated, literary word for wine — old, ruddy, matured — and so in mystical verse it figures the seasoned wine of divine knowledge, poured only for the worthy. Its very refinement marks it as the choicest grace of the spiritual assembly, not the rough draught of the street. Iqbal reaches for it when he wants the dignified register of the wine of love rather than the rowdy tavern note.
Sahba in Iqbal’s couplets
Yahan saqi nahin paida wahan be-zauq hai sahba
Yahan saaqi nahin paida, wahan be-zauq hai sahba
Mai
Wine; emblem of divine love, ecstasy, and the annihilation of the ego.
Baada
Wine; the intoxicating draught, figure of mystic rapture.
Sharaab
Wine or any intoxicating drink; in the mystical idiom, the rapture of divine love.
Baadah
Wine; the classic Persian-poetic term for the intoxicant of divine love.