Arabic · noun, feminine · The Tavern & the Cup

Sahba

सहबा

said sah-baa

Meaning

Wine, especially reddish or aged wine; a poetic synonym for the cup of mystical ecstasy.

How Iqbal uses it

Used in the ghazal tradition as an elevated word for wine, sahba carries the sense of a refined, time-matured draught. In mystical verse it figures the seasoned wine of divine knowledge poured for the worthy.

See it in the verse

Sahba in Iqbal’s couplets

Bahut dekhe hain maine mashriq-o-maghrib ke maikhane
Yahan saaqi nahin paida, wahan be-zauq hai sahba

I have seen many a tavern of the East and the West — here no cup-bearer is born, and there the wine itself is without relish.

Awakening · Self-Knowledge

Related words

PERSIAN

Mai

Wine; in Sufi poetry, a symbol for the intoxicating love and ecstatic knowledge of the Divine.

ARABIC

Sharaab

Wine or any intoxicating drink; in the mystical idiom, the rapture of divine love.

PERSIAN

Baadah

Wine; the classic Persian-poetic term for the intoxicant of divine love.

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