Today, I want to explain naaz and niaz. In olden days, Sufis always stressed this point about naaz and niaz, shama and parvana (candle and moth). Later on, these terms became so common that every Muslim poet, big or small, started using them.
Now, naaz literally means “nakhra” – coquetry, hard to please, never satisfied – and is said to be one of the chief attributes of the Divine Beloved. Sufis refer to God and Perfect Masters as the perfect personification of naaz – always full of naaz. Why? Because they are independent and indifferent, “beparvah” – no care for anything, completely detached.
Now, you might think that God, Who is the source of everything, and the Qutubs, who are God personified, how could they be beparvah (indifferent)? It sounds absurd. It is because God is absolutely independent and indifferent.
Niaz means to dance to every naaz [whim, outrageous demand] of the Beloved, to his every mood. Niaz does not mean obedience, but surrenderance.
To carry out the “nakhra” of God and the Qutubs is a great thing. It means to dance to every tune of the Beloved, who is absolutely independent and indifferent. So also is God. And a lover of God is dependent on every whim of the Beloved. It sounds absurd that a Qutub is indifferent and independent, and his lover is totally dependent – dependent not on the Qutub, but on every independent nakhra of the Qutub. But this is so.
Date: 26 Feb 1954 (Andhra Darshans)
–Lord Meher (First Ed), p4323
(www.lordmeher.org, Revised 2014, p3481)