M6:725 — چون ز صد پایه دو پایه کم بود / بام را کوشنده نامحرم بود

This couplet is part of Rumi's commentary on the Prophetic saying, "Die before you die." The spiritual path is depicted as a ladder with a hundred rungs leading to the roof, which symbolizes union with the Divine or ultimate spiritual realization. Rumi's point is that this journey is an all-or-nothing endeavor.

By specifying that only two rungs are missing from a hundred, he emphasizes that even 98% of the effort is insufficient. The one who has climbed so far (kūshanda, the striver) is still a nā-maḥram—an uninitiated outsider, a stranger—to the final destination. The effort is valiant but ultimately futile because it is incomplete.

In the context of "dying before you die," this missing final effort represents the last vestiges of the ego (nafs), the final attachments that one refuses to surrender. Without this complete self-annihilation, the spiritual seeker, despite all their austerities and struggles, remains barred from the ultimate reality they seek.