S. R. Faruqi:

On this theme, a better verse than this one (with regard to 'mood') we have already seen in

{64,12}.

The rhyme of aa))ii meaning 'death' too he has already versified, in:

{721,11}.

Despite these points, this verse is out of the ordinary. The first point is that the speaker's tone is entirely flat, colorless, and devoid of emotion. It's as if someone is stating a legal principle or making a generalization. In the second line, by saying vuhii to jaave hai vaa;N he has reinforced that tone. The style is as if what is being said is an expression ex cathedra.

The second point is that the verse is comprised of two statements, or two principles: (1) Whoever attaches his heart to the beloved, the beloved doesn't rest until she's killed him; (2) Whoever has once belonged to the beloved, he remains hers forever. Whether this be called captivity for life or individual volition, this madness is lifelong.

In the second line, there are the following meanings: (1) Only he goes into the beloved's street, whose death-time would have come. Thus he goes to meet not the beloved, but death. (2) Only he whose death-time would have come, is able to arrive in the beloved's street. (3) He whose death-time has come, goes off to the beloved's street (to die).

In the first line too, an additional aspect of the meaning is so rahaa -- that is, the person who went into the beloved's street stayed right there, as if he had acquired eternal life.

Between vuhii to jaave and aa))ii , there's the connection of a zila. Between rahaa and jaa too there's a zila, but not such an effective one. The idiomaticness of rahaa so rahaa is fine.

FWP:

SETS == MUSHAIRAH
MOTIFS == LIFE/DEATH; ROAD
NAMES
TERMS

Just look at the sequence: rahaa , jaa , rahaa , jaave hai , aa))ii . Back and forth between the world and the beloved's street, between life and death; staying, going, staying, going-- coming. For it all culminates in the wonderful aa))ii , which envisions death as something fated, something that 'was to come' and now 'has come' (though here aa))ii is here technically a noun; see the definition above). After all that staying and going, 'coming' can't help but have the sense of an ending, or even of 'coming home' (especially since we know that the person will never leave again). How brilliantly this verse would have worked in the mushairah performance context!

SRF is very sure that the tone of the verse is oracular and pompous, as of someone who is laying down the law. That's quite possible, but I can also imagine other tones. What about some neighbor, shrugging his shoulders, indifferently declining to go and search (once again) for a strayed lover? What about a grief-stricken friend, struggling to accept his loss, and finding a kind of epitaph for his friend's crazed life and death? For further discussion of this issue of 'tone', see {724,2}.