The word ‘ghazal’ comes from Arabic and has been translated as ‘to talk with women’ or ‘to talk of women’. Much of Faiz Ahmad’s poetry follows the conventions of ghazal, the classical form of traditional Urdu poetry, which had been influenced by Persian literature. But Faiz’s work revolutionises the conventions, extending the meanings of many traditional terms.

For instance, though Faiz often addresses poems to his ‘beloved’, a central word in the ghazal vocabulary in his hands, it refers to both a person and also to the people as a whole, and even to revolutions. He sees the individual as existing within a wider context. The poem ‘Do not ask of Me, My Love’ is not written in a strict Ghazal form, although the phrase ‘my love’ for the beloved is repeatedly used. On the one hand, if the poem can be viewed as a rejection of romantic love, on the other, it is possible to take the beloved as the country or nationalism. It can be argued that Ahmad’s initial love for the country underwent disillusionment as the country was guilty of persecuting the innocent. This persecution was the outcome of narrow nationalism.

Political leaders who did not have a wider worldview upheld narrow nationalism which was opposed by Faiz Ahmad. He upheld universal brotherhood and was of the opinion that even as a citizen is proud of belonging to his own nation, he should be equally conscious of the fact that he is the citizen of the world.