Ishq عشق

Ishq (عشق) — The strongest of the three Akbarian love-registers (maḥabba / hawā / ʿishq). Theologically controversial in classical kalām (some early jurists denied ʿishq could properly be predicated of God-human relations); the Sufi tradition through Ḥallāj, Aḥmad Ghazālī (Sawāniḥ), Rūzbihān Baqlī, and Ibn al-Fāriḍ rehabilitates it as the foundational mystical-erotic register. “Lust” and “obsession” are forbidden because they import pathologizing registers. Distinguish from maḥabba (relational) and hawā (perplexing passion); when more than one of the three appears in a passage the apparatus should preserve the register-distinction even when the line-level English domesticates.

Etymology

[STUB: editor to author etymology, root, and morphological notes.]

Cross-tradition resonance

Related terms across traditions (each relation is a stub the editor expands):

• Eros (christian-mysticism) — [STUB: editor to expand — shared-consuming-love]
• Hawa (islamic-mysticism) — [STUB: editor to expand — contrastive-passion-vs-passionate-love]

Primary sources

[STUB: editor to list locus classicus and other canonical attestations.]

Scholarly literature

[STUB: editor to list standard secondary scholarship.]

Hekhal Editorial. "Ishq." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. Last modified May 2, 2026. https://hekhal.org/lexicon/ishq.

Hekhal Editorial. 2026. "Ishq." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. https://hekhal.org/lexicon/ishq.

Hekhal Editorial. "Ishq." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition, May 2, 2026, hekhal.org/lexicon/ishq.

Hekhal Editorial. (2026). Ishq. Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. https://hekhal.org/lexicon/ishq

@misc{hekhal-lexicon-ishq-2026,
  author       = {{Hekhal Editorial}},
  title        = {{Ishq}},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {{Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition}},
  url          = {https://hekhal.org/lexicon/ishq},
  urldate      = {[date accessed]}
}