Ghazal (ग़ज़ल) is a long poem made of several couplets in Urdu-Hindi / Hindustani. Each couplet (known as Sher शेर or bait बैत) could be independent or related with each other. The plural of Sher (शेर) is Ashaār (अशआर). Each couplet (Sher) has two lines known as Misrā (मिस्रा). The first line of a Couplet (Sher) is called Misrā-e-uulā (मिस्रा-ए-ऊला) and the second line is called misrā-e-sāni (मिस्रा-ए-सानी). The first couplet of a Ghazal is called Matlā (मत्ला). The last couplet is called maqtā (मक़्ता). Qāfiyā (क़ाफ़िया) is the rhyming pattern of words that must directly proceed the Ghazal’s Radīf (रदीफ़). Radīf (रदीफ़) is the common repeating word/s (one/two) which is placed after Qāfiyā (क़ाफ़िया). Takhallus (तख़ल्लुस) is the pen name of the poet placed in final couplet maqtā (मक़्ता) of a Ghazal. The length of each line or couplet is measured in Bahr (बहर) which is also known as Vazna (वज़्न) or Meter. The best couplet (शेर) of a Ghazal is known as Hāsile-ghazal-sher (हासिले-ग़ज़ल शेर) or bait-ul-ghazal (बैत-उल-ग़ज़ल).
Various attributes of a standard Ghazal can be demonstrated by the following illustration. This Ghazal [dil mein ek lahr si uThi hai abhi] is written by famous Urdu poet from Pakistan Nasir Kazmi (1925 – 1972).
You may want to listen to this Ghazal in the voice of great Ghazal maestro Ghualam Ali on the following link
Linguistica Indica 