M2:1933 — شیرمردانند در عالم مدد / آن زمان کافغان مظلومان رسد

This couplet establishes a core principle of Rumi's spiritual ethics, using the immediate story of a hero saving a bear from a dragon as its starting point. The "lion-hearted" (shīr-mardān) are not just physically brave men, but the Friends of God (awliyāʾ), the perfected human beings who act as conduits for divine mercy in the world.

Their intervention is not a calculated choice but a spontaneous, necessary response. Just as water naturally flows to the lowest ground, these spiritual masters are irresistibly drawn to need and suffering. The cry of the oppressed (afghān-i maẓlūmān) acts as a summons they are divinely compelled to answer. Rumi is universalizing the specific event of the story: this is how God's help manifests in the world—through selfless, compassionate human beings who embody His attribute of Mercy.