Meaning
Melancholy madness or obsessive passion, the fixed frenzy of a mind possessed by one idea or love.
Literally: black bile; melancholy
How Iqbal uses it
Sauda is the lover's beautiful obsession, the melancholy mania that fixes the heart upon a single longing. Iqbal can turn this frenzy noble, the all-consuming passion that lifts the self above petty calculation.
See it in the verse
Sauda in Iqbal’s couplets
Taqlid ki rawish se to behtar hai khud-kushi
Rasta bhi dhund khizr ka sauda bhi chhod de
Rasta bhi dhund khizr ka sauda bhi chhod de
Better self-destruction than a life of blind imitation; find your own road, and give up the obsession with a guide.
Selfhood · Freedom · Courage
Sama sakta nahin pahna-e-fitrat mein mera sauda
Ghalat tha ai junun shayad tera andaza-e-sahra
Ghalat tha ai junun shayad tera andaza-e-sahra
My passion cannot be contained even in the vastness of nature; O madness, perhaps your measure of the desert was wrong.
Restlessness · Aspiration · Selfhood