Book (Review)
The forty rules of love
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 feminists in Turkey.
The forty rules of love is all about spirituality, sufism, and love and a little bit about fiction. This novel consists of two parallel narratives. The one is about a Jewish married woman named Ella, living in Northampton. She is in her forties and feels emptiness in her life.
Ella works for a literary agency and currently she is given a book named “Sweet Blasphemy” written by Aziz. This novel is about Rumi and his sufi teacher, Shams of Tabrez. Elif/Aziz reveals how a great preacher transforms into the great poet of the world and people know him by the name “voice of love”. This is another narrative of this novel.
The story reveals in this novel is from many perspectives like from Shams perspectives, Rumis daughter perspectives, Rumiss family and even from a prostitute’s perspective. These various perspective tells us to become a Sufi you have to see the world from various perspectives.
This novel is about spirituality and love of Shams, who is wandering to find a companion to whom he could deliver his knowledge. His companionship with Rumi transforms Rumi into a Sufi saint and poet. This transformation of Rumi creates hatred for Shams and even for Rumi`s family.
On the other hand Ella has been highly attached with Aziz through e-mails and now she is ready to give up her life, her children and her unfaithful husband to fill the emptiness in her life with love.
This novel reveals the message of love and the true version of God. Elif believes that we all got same God but the various sects created due to misinterpretation of religion divided the society that leads to conflicts among the people of the same religion. This novel also tells us how this divided society created violence in the society. We all are searching for God outside but God do exist inside us. Why do we not choose the path of love to seek God within?
