M4:43 — جز یکی لقیه که اول از قضا / بر وی افتاد و شد او را دلربا

This couplet marks the origin of the lover's consuming passion. For eight years, as the preceding verses explain, his beloved has been utterly inaccessible—he couldn't even see her shadow, knowing her only through descriptions, like the mythical phoenix (ʿanqā). This verse reveals the exception that proves the rule: their entire history hinges on one initial, fateful encounter.

The phrase az qazā (از قضا), meaning "by chance" or "by fate," is crucial. It suggests that this foundational glance was not sought but was a moment of providential accident, a spark from the Unseen that ignited a long fire. This single look was so potent that it became delrobā—a "heart-stealer"—sustaining him through years of subsequent separation and longing.

Rumi uses this detail to illustrate a common pattern in the spiritual path. The seeker is often granted a brief, overwhelming taste of divine beauty or truth at the very beginning. This initial grace becomes the driving force for the long, arduous journey that follows, where that direct vision is withdrawn, and one must strive on the memory and hope of that first encounter.