radif

In the poetic traditions of the Islamic East, particularly in Persian, Turkic, and Urdu ghazals, the radīf (from the Arabic linguistic root , meaning 'the one riding behind') refers to a specific word or short phrase that must consistently end each line of the opening couplet and the second line of all subsequent couplets.

Structurally, the radīf strictly follows the qafiya, which serves as the actual rhyming syllable of the poem.