M4:44 — بعد از آن چندان که می‌کوشید او / خود مجالش می‌نداد آن تندخو

This couplet describes the period of agonizing separation between the lover's first, fateful glimpse of the beloved and the present moment of the story. That initial meeting, which Rumi calls a luqya (a chance encounter), was a moment of pure grace (qazā), not human effort. But immediately afterward, the dynamic shifted.

The beloved is described as tand-khū, meaning 'sharp-tempered' or 'fiery-natured'. This isn't necessarily a character flaw; in the Sufi context, it signifies the Divine Beloved's majestic self-sufficiency and apparent inaccessibility. The Beloved is not to be won over by conventional means like pleading or payment, as the next verse clarifies. The lover's striving (kūshīdan)—his desperate attempts to recreate that first moment—proves entirely futile. The 'opening' or 'opportunity' (majāl) he seeks is withheld.

This sets up a core theme in Rumi's work: the spiritual path is not a matter of human will conquering a reluctant God. Rather, the initial taste of union is a gift, followed by a period of trial where the seeker's efforts are frustrated. True reunion, as the lover is about to discover, comes not from his own striving but from another act of grace, paradoxically initiated by the very thing he was fleeing (the night watchman).