Arabic · noun · Spirit & the Divine

Sahw

सह्व
said SAHW
also written: sahv, sobriety, Sahv
Meaning

Spiritual sobriety, the lucid return to self-awareness after ecstatic intoxication.

Literally: sobriety; sober self-possession

Usage & notes

Sobriety — the mystic's return to clear self-possession after the intoxication (sukr) of ecstasy, the state of one who is fully with God yet fully present and capable of action. The "sober" Sufis held this to be the higher and more complete station. Iqbal's whole ideal of the realized self in command of itself and the world aligns with the primacy of sahw over self-losing intoxication.