The ghazal's great cousin is the nazm. A nazm is a poem that has a unified subject— every line is about the same thing. Where a ghazal is a string of pearls, a nazm is a single carved object: a love poem, a political poem, an elegy, a description of a season. Iqbal's Lab pe aati hai dua is a nazm; his ghazals are something else entirely.
Some differences:
- Subject. A nazm has one. A ghazal has as many as it has couplets.
- Form. A ghazal must obey strict qafia/radif rules. A nazm has more freedom — it can use a single rhyme, paired rhymes, blank verse, anything.
- Effect. A nazm builds an argument cumulatively. A ghazal accumulates by accretion — each pearl adds to the necklace.