''Ishq'' () is an

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word meaning 'love' or 'passion', also widely used in other languages of the

Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim 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, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

and the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. The word ''ishq'' does not appear in the central religious text of Islam, the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, which instead uses derivatives of the verbal root ' (), such as the noun ' (). The word is traditionally derived from the verbal root ' "to stick, to cleave to" and connected to the noun ', which denotes a kind of ivy. 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''). 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. 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'')". 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. 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 Ibn Hazm (; November 994 – 15 August 1064) was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, traditionist, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Córdoban Caliphate, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpre ...

. 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 Sufism ( or ) is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and ...

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 Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

Etymology

Traditional Persian lexicographers considered the Persian ' and Arabic ' () to derive from the Arabic verbal root ' () "to stick, to cleave to". They connected the origin of the root to ' (), a kind of ivy, because it twines around and cleaves to trees (Zamaxšari, Tâj al-'arus). Heydari-Malayeri suggests that (') may have an

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

origin and may be related to

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

words such as ' "to wish, desire, search", and ultimately derive from *iška. The Avestan ' also exists in

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

in the form of ' "desire".M. Heydari-Malayer
On the origin of the word ešq
/ref>

As a word in different languages

In the most languages such as

Dari Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...

: ''eshq''; in ; in Somali: ' or '; in and in , in modern

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

as ' or ' , it literally means "love". 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. The word ishq referred to traditional ghazals and Indo-Persian literary culture 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

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

, Sindhi, Saraiki: عشق, , , and . In Persian, Ishq construed with the verbs "bākhtan باختن", "khāstan خواستن", "sanjīdan سنجیدن", "rūīdan روییدن", "nešāndan نشاندن", etc. In Persian, "Āšeq عاشق" is the active participle (lover), "Ma'shūq معشوق" is the passive participle (beloved), and "Ma'shūqeh 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 Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

), and ''ishq-e rasūl'' / ''ishq-e Muhammadi'' (love of the Messenger / love of

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

). 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 The voiceless uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive , except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula. The symbol in the ...

, and the letter 'ş' with the

cedilla A cedilla ( ; from Spanish language, Spanish ', "small ''ceda''", i.e. small "z"), or cedille (from French , ), is a hook or tail () added under certain letters (as a diacritic, diacritical mark) to indicate that their pronunciation is modif ...

denotes the "sh" sound, . In comparison with

, (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

-language, especially in

lollywood Lollywood is Pakistan's film industry, which has served as the base for both Urdu- and Punjabi-language film production. Lahore has been the center of Pakistani cinema since independence in 1947. However, with the Urdu film hub largel ...

movies (Pakistani cinema), which often use formal, flowery and poetic Urdu loanwords derived from Persian. The more colloquial Urdu word for love is ''pyar''. In Urdu, ' (عشق) means '' lustless love''.Ghazal Notes: Ishq
/ref> 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 ' and its derived forms ', etc.

In Sufism

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

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Ishq-e Majāzi

''Ishq-e Majāzi'' () 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 Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and considered unlawful. Hence, in Faqr, the term Ishq-e Majāzi is directed only towards Ishq-e Murshid. This love for one's

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 director, spiritual guide. The term is freque ...

eventually leads to love for

and eventually for God, upon which one that understands Ishq-e Haqīqi is in fact the source of all 'metaphorical love'.

Ishq-e Rasūl or Ishq-e Muhammadi

''Ishq-e Rasūl'' () means "love of Muhammad," an important part of being a Muslim. In Sufism, however, the Ishq-e Majāzi changes its form to Ishq-e Rasūl through the development of an intense feeling of Ishq for

. Every existent form of creation is in fact the slave of the Creator (in the sense of being subject to His will). Since

is the most beloved to Allah, the true Lover feels Ishq-e Rasūl till "the Prophet becomes dearer to him than his life, wives, children, house, business and everything else". (

Sahih Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

and

Sahih Muslim () is the second hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj () in the format, the work is valued by Sunnis, alongside , as the most important source for Islamic religion after the Q ...

)

Ishq-e Haqīqi

''Ishq-e Haqīqi'' () 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. 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."'' ( Al-Baqarah 165)

In Sikhism

The term ‘Ishq’ ( Punjabi: ਇਸ਼ਕ ) has been used multiple times in the

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, w ...

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. 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)

References

{{Authority control Sufism Love Arabic words and phrases