Ghazal is originally an Arabic poetic form consisting of rhythming couplets (AA BA CA DA...) that has been adapted to several South and Central Asian languages. It is one of the principle forms of Persian poetry, and primary themes include spiritual love and the pain felt from separation. Sufism has been an important influence for ghazal poets throughout Persia and the Indian subcontinent. Ghazals have been set to musical accompaniment in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, where they are a lighter style of Hindustani classical music. In India, ghazal singing has largely become popularized, with ghazals being a part of many Bollywood movie soundtracks. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, ghazal has retained a prestige as both an intellectually deep poetic form and a style of art music.

The musicians of the kharabat, Kabul's professional musician's neighborhood, are the masters of performing the Afghan ghazal, also known as the Afghan classical ghazal. The current style of ghazal singing was developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ustad Qurban Ali (b. c1880) was one of the first Afghan musicians who began to sing ghazals in the Hindustani (Indian) style, but many musicians consider Ustad Qasem (1883-1956) to have perfected the form of the Afghan classical ghazal. This style follows a cyclical organization with fast instrumental interludes, known as duni or laggi, separating units of the poetry. A distinguishing feature of the Afghan classical ghazal is the addition of a shah fard, "king verse", a semi-melodic section featuring an added couplet (called a fard) from a different poem. In performance, this verse is inserted between the opening couplet (called a matla) and the ghazal itself. Most often this added verse features a mystic, philosophical, moral, or romantic message.

Ghazal performances usually feature a small performing ensemble that supports the solo vocalist. Vocalists will regularly play the harmonium, a hand-pump reed organ, and accompanying them can be melodic instruments such as the rubab and tanbur, and a drummer playing tabla. During a performance, the melodic accompanists will follow or "echo" the melodies that the vocalist sings, while the tabla plays the rhythmic cycle of the composition. While the poetry is the primary focal point of the performance, the instrumentalists have space to flex their musical skills during the duni, which is played at double the original tempo and ends with a short cadence called a tihai.

Ghazals that are sung in Afghanistan are most often composed in Farsi or Pashto. Famous poets whose ghazals are often set to music include classical writers such as Amir Khusro Balkhi (1253-1325), a Sufi poet, scholar, and musician; Hafez Shirazi (c. 1325-1390), one of the most famous Persian poets; and Abdul Qadir Bedil (1642-1720), an Indian-born Sufi poet whose ghazals were made popular in Afghanistan by the vocalist, Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang. The ghazals of Saadi Shirazi (1210-1291/92) and Jalal al-din Mohammad Rumi (1207-1273) are also commonly performed. Prominent contemporary ghazal poets include the Afghan musician and poet, Nashenas (b. 1935); Nainawaz (1935-1979), considered to be the "father of Afghan pop music"; and Ustad Awalmir (1931-1982), a composer, musician, and poet known famously for his song "Da Zamong Ziba Watan," "Our Beautiful Homeland," a song about Afghanistan.