Tyranny, oppression, cruelty; the wrong the beloved inflicts on the lover.
Literally: tyranny, oppression, cruelty
Sitam is tyranny — the beloved cast as a beautiful oppressor (sitamgar) who torments the lover for sport. Like jafa, it is the cruelty the ghazal paradoxically prizes: the lover would rather be wounded than forgotten. The whole drama dignifies suffering as the lover's chosen vocation, and in the spiritual reading, the seeming harshness of a Beloved whose every blow is secretly a mercy.
Jafa
Cruelty, unkindness, the beloved's harsh treatment of the faithful lover.
Zulm
Oppression, injustice, cruelty; the beloved's tyranny or any wrong done.
Sitamgar
A tyrant, an oppressor; the cruel beloved who torments the lover.
Bewafai
Faithlessness, infidelity, the breaking of the pledge of love.