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Ishq

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This article is about the word Ishq. For other uses, see Ishq (disambiguation).

Ishq (Arabic: عشق, ‘išq) is an Arabic word meaning "love" or "passion",[1] also widely used in other languages of the Muslim world and the Indian subcontinent.

The word ishq does not appear in the Quran, which instead uses derivatives of the verbal root habba (حَبَّ), such as the noun hubb (حُبّ). The word is traditionally derived from the verbal root ʿašaq "to stick, to cleave to" and connected to the noun ʿašaqah, which denotes a kind of ivy.[2] In its most common classical interpretation, ishq refers to the irresistible desire to obtain possession of the beloved (ma‘shuq), expressing a deficiency that the lover (‘āshiq) must remedy in order to reach perfection (kamāl).[1] Like the perfections of the soul and the body, love thus admits of hierarchical degrees, but its underlying reality is the aspiration to the beauty (al-husn) which God manifested in the world when he created Adam in his own image.[1] The Islamic conception of love acquired further dimensions from the Greek-influenced view that the notions of Beauty, Good, and Truth (al-haqq) "go back to one indissoluble Unity (wahda)".[1]

Among classical Muslim authors, the notion of love was developed along three conceptual lines, oftentimes conceived in an ascending hierarchical order: natural love, intellectual love and divine love.[1] The growth of affection (mawadda) into passionate love (ishq) received its most probing and realistic analysis in The Ring of the Dove by the Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm.[1]

The term ishq is used extensively in Sufi poetry and literature to describe a "selfless and burning love" for Allah. It is the core concept in the doctrine of Islamic mysticism as is key to the connection between man and God. Ishq itself is sometimes held to have been the basis of "creation". The term ishq is widely used in the sacred text of Sikhism.

Discover more about Ishq related topics

Arabic

Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world. Having emerged in the 1st century, it is named after the Arab people; the term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece.

Muslim world

Muslim world

The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries in which Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion. The term Muslim-majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense.

Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia, situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are often used interchangeably to denote the region, although the geopolitical term of South Asia frequently includes Afghanistan, which may otherwise be classified as Central Asian.

The Ring of the Dove

The Ring of the Dove

The Ring of the Dove or Ṭawq al-Ḥamāmah is a treatise on love written in the year 1022 by Ibn Hazm. Normally a writer of theology and law, Ibn Hazm produced his only work of literature with The Ring of the Dove. He was heavily influenced by Plato's Phaedrus, though the bulk of the work was still his own writing, rather than an anthology of other works. Although the human aspects of affection are the primary concern, the book was still written from the perspective of a devout Muslim, and as such chastity and restraint were common themes.

Ibn Hazm

Ibn Hazm

Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm was an Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, muhaddith, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Caliphate of Córdoba, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpreters, Ibn Hazm was a leading proponent and codifier of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works, of which only 40 still survive. In all, his written works amounted to some 80 000 pages. Described as one of the fathers of comparative religion, the Encyclopaedia of Islam refers to him as having been one of the leading thinkers of the Muslim world.

Sufism

Sufism

Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".

Sikhism

Sikhism

Sikhism, also known as Sikhi, is an Indian religion and philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, around the end of the 15th century CE. It is the most recently founded major organized faith and stands at fifth-largest worldwide, with about 25–30 million adherents as of the early 21st century.

Etymology

Traditional Persian lexicographers considered the Persian ešq and Arabic ʿišq (عشق) to derive from the Arabic verbal root ʿašaq (عَشَق) "to stick, to cleave to". They connected the origin of the root to ʿašaqa (عَشَقَه), a kind of ivy, because it twines around and cleaves to trees (Zamaxšari, Tâj al-'arus).[2]

Heydari-Malayeri suggests that (ʿišq) may have an Indo-European origin and may be related to Avestan words such as iš- "to wish, desire, search", and ultimately derive from *iška. The Avestan iš- also exists in Middle Persian in the form of išt "desire".[2]

As a word in different languages

In the most languages such as Dari: eshq; in Pashto: eshq; in Somali: caashaq or cishqi; in Turkish: aşk and in Azerbaijani: eşq, in modern Persian as ešq or eshgh عشق, it literally means "love".[2]

Some scholars objected to the use of the term 'ishq' due to its association with sensual love but despite the linguistic, cultural or technical meanings, Sufis believe that 'ishq' can only be associated to the Divine.[3]

The word ishq referred to traditional ghazals and Indo-Persian literary culture[4] and has made its way to many other languages which were influenced by Sufism. Some of the most notable languages which have this word are Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Pashto, Arabic, Sindhi, Saraiki: عشق, Turkish: aşk, Azerbaijani: eşq, Bengali: এশ্ক, romanized: eshk and Punjabi: ਇਸ਼ਕ.

In Persian, Ishq construed with the verbs "bākhtan باختن", "khāstan خواستن", "sanjīdan سنجیدن", "rūīdan روییدن", "nešāndan نشاندن", etc.[5] In Persian, "Āšeq عاشق" is the active participle (lover), "Ma'shūq معشوق" is the passive participle (beloved), and "Ma'shūqe معشوقه" conveys a vulgar meaning, whilst in Arabic it is the female passive participle of "Mā'shūq معشوق".

In Urdu, Ishq (عشق) is used to refer to fervent love for any object, person or God. However, it is mostly used in its religious context. In Urdu, three very common religious terminologies have been derived from Ishq. These terminologies are Ishq-e-Haqīqi (love of Truth), Ishq-e majāzi (love of God's creation i.e. a human), and ishq-e rasūl / ishq-e Muhammadi (love of the Messenger / love of Muhammad). Other than these, in non-religious context, ‘ishq is a synonym for obsessive love.

In Turkish, Aşk is commonly used to express love, passion or adoration. The Turkish version replaces the 'q' with a 'k', as Turkish lacks voiceless uvular plosive, and the letter 'ş' with the cedilla denotes the "sh" sound, /ʃ/. In comparison with Arabic or Urdu, (like Persian) the word is less restrictive and can be applied to many forms of love, or simply romance. It is common in the lyrics of Turkish songs.

Ishq is used in the Hindi-language, especially in Bollywood movies (Hindi cinema), which often use formal, flowery and poetic Hindi loanwords derived from Persian. The more colloquial Hindi word for love is pyar. In Hindi, ʻIshq' (इश्क़) means lustless love.[6] In Arabic, it is a noun. However, in Hindi-Urdu it is used as both verb and noun.

In Modern Arabic the usual terms used for romantic love are habba and its derived forms hubb, habib, mahbub, etc.[2]

Discover more about As a word in different languages related topics

Somali language

Somali language

Somali is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in Greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora. Somali is an official language in Somalia and Ethiopia, and a national language in Djibouti as well as in northeastern Kenya. The Somali language is written officially with the Latin alphabet although the Arabic alphabet and several Somali scripts like Osmanya, Kaddare and the Borama script are informally used.

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri, also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, and in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, where the South Azerbaijani variety is spoken. Although there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and sources of loanwords.

Persian language

Persian language

Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Iranian Persian, Dari Persian and Tajiki Persian. It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan, as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran. It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet, a derivation of the Arabic script, and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet, a derivation of the Cyrillic script.

Hindi

Hindi

Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been described as a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas of North India. Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with English. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.

Pashto

Pashto

Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani.

Arabic

Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world. Having emerged in the 1st century, it is named after the Arab people; the term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece.

Sindhi language

Sindhi language

Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, without any state-level official status. The main writing system is the Perso-Arabic script, which accounts for the majority of the Sindhi literature and is the only one currently used in Pakistan. In India, both the Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari are used.

Saraiki language

Saraiki language

Saraiki is an Indo-Aryan language of the Lahnda group, spoken by 26 million people primarily in the south-western half of the province of Punjab in Pakistan. It was previously known as Multani, after its main dialect.

Bengali language

Bengali language

Bengali, generally known by its endonym Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken of the 22 scheduled languages of India. With approximately 300 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers, Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world. Bengali is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language.

Punjabi language

Punjabi language

Punjabi, sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers.

Human

Human

Humans are the most abundant and widespread species of primate. They are a type of great ape that is characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. Humans are highly social and tend to live in complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states. As such, social interactions between humans have established a wide variety of values, social norms, languages, and rituals, each of which bolsters human society. The desire to understand and influence phenomena has motivated humanity's development of science, technology, philosophy, mythology, religion, and other conceptual frameworks.

Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets within Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief.

In Sufism

In religious context, Ishq, divided into three kinds, is a very important but rather complex concept of Sufi tradition of Islam.

Ishq-e Majāzi

Ishq-e Majāzi (Persian: عشق مجازی) literally means "metaphorical love". It refers to the love for God's creation i.e. love of a man for a woman or another man and vice versa. It is said to be generated by beloved person's external beauty but since it is connected to lust, it is against the law and considered unlawful. Hence, in Faqr, the term Ishq-e-Majazi is directed only towards Ishq-e-Murshid.[7] This love for one's Murshid eventually leads to love for Muhammad and eventually for God, upon which one that understands Ishq-e-Haqeeqi is in fact the source of all 'metaphorical love'.

Ishq-e Rasūl or Ishq-e Muhammadi

Ishq-e Rasūl (Persian: عشق رسول) means "love of Muhammad," an important part of being a Muslim. In Sufism, however, the Ishq-e-Majazi changes its form to Ishq-e-Rasool through the development of an intense feeling of Ishq for Muhammad. Every existent form of creation is in fact the slave of the Creator (in the sense of being subject to His will). Since Muhammad is the most beloved to Allah, the true Lover feels Ishq-e-Rasool till "the Prophet becomes dearer to him than his life, wives, children, house, business and everything else". (Sahih Bukhari and Muslim)[8]
Many Sufis firmly believe that the souls of the entire creation were created from the soul of Muhammad. Hence, the purified soul of the Lover craves to return to him (similarly to the Platonic view of the fractured human soul and its desire to become whole). This is experienced at the level where the Lover witnesses the reflection of all the attributes of God within Muhammad.

Ishq-e Haqeeqi

Ishq-e Haqīqi (Persian: عشق حقیقی) literally means "the real love" i.e. "the love of God". It refers to the belief that only God is worth loving and He is the only one who can return His creature's love for Him.[9] The inner subtlety whose locus is the heart is felt by the true seeker of God only. According to this view, this is what differences man from beast because even beasts have senses, whereas inner sight is characteristic of humans.

"And those who truly believe, love Allah intensely."[10] (Al-Baqarah 165)

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Islam

Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered around the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam, called Muslims, number approximately 1.9 billion globally and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.

Persian language

Persian language

Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Iranian Persian, Dari Persian and Tajiki Persian. It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan, as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran. It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet, a derivation of the Arabic script, and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet, a derivation of the Cyrillic script.

Tariqa

Tariqa

A tariqa is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking haqiqa, which translates as "ultimate truth".

Murshid

Murshid

Murshid is Arabic for "guide" or "teacher", derived from the root r-sh-d, with the basic meaning of having integrity, being sensible, mature. Particularly in Sufism it refers to a spiritual guide. The term is frequently used in Sufi orders such as the Naqshbandiyya, Qādiriyya, Chishtiya, Shadhiliya and Suhrawardiyya.

Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets within Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief.

Agape

Agape

In Christianity, agape is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for man and of man for God". This is in contrast to philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a deep and profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance. The verb form goes as far back as Homer, translated literally as affection, as in "greet with affection" and "show affection for the dead". Other ancient authors have used forms of the word to denote love of a spouse or family, or affection for a particular activity, in contrast to eros.

In Sikhism

The term ‘Ishq’ (Punjabi: ਇਸ਼ਕ ) has been used multiple times in the Guru Granth Sahib as well as other religious texts of the Sikhs such as those written by Bhai Gurdas and Bhai Nandlal. The concept of ‘Ishq’ in Sikhism is similar to that of Ishq-e-haqiqi in Sufism.[11] The Guru Granth Sahib on page 37 says “ He Himself dyes us in the Color of His Love; through the Word of His Shabad, He unites us with Himself.” ( Siree Raag, Third Mehl) [12]

Discover more about In Sikhism related topics

Punjabi language

Punjabi language

Punjabi, sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers.

Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Granth Sahib

The Guru Granth Sahib is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the religion. The Adi Granth, its first rendition, was compiled by the fifth guru, Guru Arjan (1564–1606). Its compilation was completed on 29 August 1604 and first installed inside Golden Temple in Amritsar on 1 September 1604. Baba Buddha was appointed the first Granthi of the Golden Temple. Shortly afterwards Guru Hargobind added Ramkali Ki Vaar. Later, Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, added hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur to the Adi Granth and affirmed the text as his successor. This second rendition became known as the Guru Granth Sahib and is also sometimes referred to as the Adi Granth.

Bhai Gurdas

Bhai Gurdas

Bhai Gurdas was a Sikh writer, historian and preacher who served as the Jathedar of the Akal Takht from 1606 to his death in 1636. He was the original scribe of the early version of Guru Granth Sahib.

Bhai Nand Lal

Bhai Nand Lal

Bhai Nand Lal, also known by his pen name Goya, was a 17th-century Sikh poet in the Punjab region.

Source: "Ishq", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 13th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishq.

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Further Reading

Sufism

Fakir

Dervish

Jami

Ghazal

Urdu poetry

Qawwali

Diwan (poetry)

Nafs

Sufi literature

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

Maqam (Sufism)

Urdu Ghazal

Majzoob (Sufism)
See also
References
  1. ^ a b c d e f Arkoun, M. (1997). "ʿIs̲h̲ḳ". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Brill. p. 119.
  2. ^ a b c d e M. Heydari-Malayeri On the origin of the word ešq
  3. ^ Ghazzali, Aaron Spevack, Fethullah Gülen (2012). Ghazali on the Principles of Islamic Spirituality: Selections from the Forty Foundations of Religion Annotated & Explained. SkyLight Paths Publishing. ISBN 9781594732843.
  4. ^ ghazalpage.net/prose/notes/ghazal_notes.html Ghazal Notes: Ishq - dead link 20 August, 2022
  5. ^ STEINGAS, Francis Joseph. A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, عشق, Asian Educational Services, 1992, page 850.
  6. ^ Ghazal Notes: Ishq
  7. ^ Mohammad Najib ur Rehman, Hazrat Sakhi Sultan (11 March 2015). Ishq-e-Majazi (Metaphorical Love). Sultan ul Faqr Publications Regd. ISBN 9789699795183.
  8. ^ Muslim, Bukhari. "Hadith of Hazrat Mohammad pbuh".
  9. ^ Mohammad Najib ur Rehman, Hazrat Sakhi Sultan (11 March 2015). Ishq-e-Haqeeqi (Divine Love). Sultan ul Faqr Publications Regd. ISBN 9789699795183.
  10. ^ 7 Renowned Translations, Arabic to English Translation. "Al Baqarah (The Cow) 165".
  11. ^ "Charitar 98 - SikhiWiki, free Sikh encyclopedia". www.sikhiwiki.org. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
  12. ^ "Sri Granth: Shabad/Paurhi/Salok SGGS Page 37". www.srigranth.org. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
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