A ghazal is a chain of shers (couplets), each complete in itself, all in one metre and bound together by rhyme.
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Misra | one line |
| Sher | a couplet of two misre |
| Matla | the first sher; both lines end in the qafia + radif |
| Radif | the repeated ending, the same in every sher |
| Qafia | the rhyming word before the radif, different in each sher |
| Maqta | the last sher, carrying the poet's takhallus (pen name) |
| Bahr | the metre all the lines share |
The radif kyaa hai ends every second line. The qafia changes: huaa, davaa, maajraa, mudda'aa, buraa all end in -aa. In the matla both lines rhyme; in later shers only the second line does. The maqta names Ghalib.
Find the radif: 6 questions, built fresh each time from the couplets.