There is a word that carries both comfort and unease in equal measure: ghaib.
It refers to what is hidden, unseen, unknowable—the parts of life that remain beyond our grasp no matter how hard we try to understand them. In a world obsessed with certainty, answers, and control, ghaib asks us to sit with ambiguity instead.
This week in Urdunama, we explore ghaib, the hidden, the unsaid, the unknowable. Through Ghalib’s mysticism, Chakbast’s charged hope, and Ahmad Salman’s quiet intimacy, these poems show how the unseen continues to guide thought, emotion, and belief. Tune in.