Ghazals often deal with topics of spiritual and romantic love and may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation from the beloved and the beauty of love in spite of that pain.

Ghazal, the most popular genre of Urdu poetry, is originally an Arabic word which literally means talking to women or talking about women. The painful wail coming out of the mouth of a baby deer is also called ghazal.

Ghazal is an indirect Quranic name for girls that means love poem, or any poetry expressing strong emotion. It also means anything said in a sweet and melodious voice, affecting the person who hears it. It is derived from the Gh-Z-L root (yarn, love-speak, gazelle)which is used in the Quran in Surat an-Nahl: Gender Boy.