قافیہ

Qafia & Radif

Rhyme & refrain

The two structural rules every ghazal couplet obeys after the first one — the rhyming qafia and the optional but transformative radif.

Qafia — the rhyme

The qafia is the rhyming word — the word that changes from sheʿr to sheʿr, but always rhymes. In a ghazal, the qafia appears at the end of the second misra of every sheʿr. (In the opening sheʿr, the matla, it appears at the end of both misras.)

In Ghalib's famous ghazal, the rhyme is on nikle — and across the ghazal the rhyming words are dam nikle, kam nikle, ham nikle, sanam nikle, and so on. Each is a different word, but each shares the rhyme.

Radif — the refrain

The radif is the refrain — a word or short phrase that is repeated exactlyat the end of every sheʿr's second misra, afterthe qafia. Unlike the qafia, the radif doesn't change. It is the same word, ghazal after ghazal, sheʿr after sheʿr.

Not every ghazal has a radif. Many of the greatest do. Faiz's famous ghazal Gulon mein rang bhare has the radif chale. At the end of every couplet, after the rhyming qafia word, comes the same word, chale — like a bell ringing out at the close of every verse.

گلوں میں رنگ بھرے، باد نوبہار چلے
چلے بھی آؤ کہ گلستاں کا کاروبار چلے
Gulon mein rang bhare, baad-e-naubahaar chale
Chale bhi aao ke gulistaan ka kaarobaar chale
Faiz Ahmed FaizQafia: bahar / kaarobaar. Radif: chale.

Read both lines and feel where chale lands. That recurring refrain is the radif. The slot before it, where the rhyming word changes from couplet to couplet, is the qafia.