The Forty Rules of Love 

is a novel written by the Turkish author Elif Shafak,[1][2][3] The book was published in

March 2009.[4] It is about Maulana Jalal-Ud-Din, known as Rumi and his companion Shams Tabrizi.[5][6] This book
explains how Shams transformed a scholar into a Sufi (mystic) through love.[7] More than 750,000 copies of this
book were sold in Turkey and France. Her
works have been translated into more than forty
languages. This book comes under literary fiction and was published in 2009
Every chapter of the book starts with letter "b".[10] It is because the secret of Quran lies in Surah Al-Fatiha and its
spirit is contained in the phrase Bismillah ir Rehman ir Rahim (In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and the
most Merciful).[14] The first Arabic letter of the Bismillah has a dot below it that symbolizes the Universe as
per Sufism thoughts

The 40 Rules of Love is a novel by Elif Shafak, tells the story of Ella Rubinstein. She
is in her late thirties, is a mother of three kids living a settled life but still finds
something missing in her life.
She got a new job as an assistant editor in a literary agency. The first novel she got
to review was “Sweet Blasphemy”, about the love between a Sufi dervish and the
mystical scholar and poet, Rumi. 
As Ella started reading Sweet Blasphemy, she becomes increasingly aware of the
lack of love in her married life and gets inspired by the love as described in the
manuscript of the novel, she was editing. 
The “Sweet Blasphemy” begins with Sufi dervish Shams of Tabriz’s discovery of his
true companion, a famous Islamic scholar, Rumi.
Rumi and Shams spent time together in a closed room, talked about love,
spirituality, and more.
As Ella read the manuscript further, she grew a soft corner for the Author, Aziz and
they started to exchange emails discussing their family and life.
Meanwhile, Ella experiences love and loss in her own life in the form of Aziz.
While his interactions with different people, Shams encountered in his life, 40 rules of
love in this book which are as follows

The very title itself will give different thoughts on the book and the story inside. But trust
me you will explore a distinctive story just like me

Honestly speaking, I don’t want to give any hype to this book but literally, this has blown
my mind. The story is enthralling. It thoroughly changed my perspective on God, religion,
language, and finally the most misunderstood thing on earth “Love”. This book is fiction
yet the author chose the words in an exquisite manner to tell the readers about God and
Love, very clearly. After completing the book, I got a very different view on love! Coming to
the 40 rules, each rule is the universal truth that has been misunderstood over the years.
The rules will be very simple still it holds very deep meaning in it. While I come through
each rule, I feel like the author is addressing me.

The book has two parallel stories which are very interesting so that I couldn’t put the book
down. The reading experience is very amazing. Eventually, I am in love with this book,
Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. The book had a great impact on me. I don’t know whether I will
be following all the rules in my life, but those rules will be lingering in my mind forever!!
Drawing the curtain to this post with one of my favorite poems of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din
Muhammad Balkhi,

               “Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing

                 And right doing there is a field
                 I will meet you there.
                 When the soul lies down in that grass
                The world is too full to talk about”

So, dear readers, if you are searching for enlightening, enthralling and at the same time
colorful story I highly recommend this book, “THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE” by ELIF
SHAFAK. Happy reading!!

The Forty Rules of Love is written by Elif Shafak, a French born Turkish writer. Elif Shafak
is one of the most acknowledged and bravest of the authors and feminist in Turkey. The
Forty Rules of Love is one of her best sellers. The novel consists of two parallel narratives.
The contemporary one is about an unhappily married Jewish housewife named Ella living
in Northampton, Massachusetts. Ella works for a literary agency and currently she is given
a book named "Sweet Blasphemy" by Aziz Zahara. The sweet blasphemy is the second
narrative of this novel. Sweet blasphemy is actually about a wandering dervish Shams of
Tabriz, who is a mystic Sufi and he sees the vision of his death and he know that he should
find a companion to whom he can deliver his knowledge to. For that Shams travels from
Samarkand to Baghdad where he gets to know about Jalaluddin Rumi, a famous scholar of
that time by a Sufi. Shams travels to Konya where Rumi lives and the story unwraps itself
as to how they become friends, how drastically Rumi starts to change and how people start
to hate Shams including Rumi's family . On the other hand Ella becomes acquainted with
the writer of sweet blasphemy Aziz Zahara over the email after she becomes highly affected
by the sweet blasphemy. Over the course of emails with Aziz Zahara she finds out she is
ready to give up her life, her children, her husband for the guy on the other end of the
email.
The style of the novel is a narrative one and although the sweet blasphemy Is really
captivating the narrative of Ella somehow adds some weakness to the novel. The writer
nailed it in narrating the sweet blasphemy the way it was shown from many perspectives
sometimes from the perspective of shams, sometimes a beggar, sometimes zealot or Rumi
or prostitute or even the family of Rumi. That really shows the picture of what was actually
happening, the love of Rumi for Shams and the hatred of the townspeople and Rumi's
family towards Shams. But the narrative of Ella lacks the multiple perspectives. It is just
from the perspective of Ella, if it was from the point of view of Aziz or her children then the
reader would have understood Ella's story more clearly. I really liked the novel and most of
it is because of Shams of Tabriz, from his rules of love to his strong personality to his love
and belief on god everything was mesmerizing. As an agnostic, reading about Shams really
awakened the urge to find the GOD in the most unlikely places. The forty rules of love
which is narrated by shams from time to time really maybe just for a while changed my
perspective on life and on relations and obviously on GOD. On the other hand it intensified
my hatred towards the hypocrite religious people who don't have anything to do with God
or the love we bear in our hearts. And as for being a fan of Rumi's poetry it was really good
to know how he became just a good poet and knowing the person who was behind it
'SHAMS OF TABRIZ'