Book Review — Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Whenever I start reading a new book, I always google about the Author. I want to know the person who got so inspired/motivated to write a book. I believe it’s pretty fair to know the person whose work you’re about to read.

So before I began reading my new found book — Forty Rules of Love , I instantly googled Elif Shafak (this is my first book from her). I had absolutely no idea who she was, what books she had written, but somewhere I was so compelled to read this book. What first drew me to pick this book was its title and the concept of Mysticism — Sufism — Rumi. These words ring a bell and together make such beautiful music in my mind.

What do we know about Love? Nothing. Like many of us, the word Love , we relate it mostly to the relationship between a boy and girl. It is not just a word, describing a relationship but a whole emotion. This book “Forty Rules of Love” describes the 40 rules of love through the story of Rumi & Shams of Tabriz and Ella & Aziz.

Ella is a middle-aged American woman from the 20th century having a family of 3 kids and a husband. She is working as a reader for a publishing company. Bored with the routine life ,deprived from her husband’s love , she seeks true love and her kids,making decisions for themselves add more to her misery. Ella took a manuscript to read which is from Aziz, an amateur writer who has written a fiction novel — “Sweet Blasphemy” and is about Rumi, a popular poet of the 13th Century and his meeting with Shams of Tabriz, a Persian Dervish who is credited to be the spiritual instructor of Rumi. And how together they dared the society breaking the rules of love. Both the centuries’ stories inter-relation with each other is what makes this book mesmerizing

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The essence of Love in every chapter of the book is so pure , it is full of compassion, vulnerability , forgiveness , friendship & faith. To quote , one of the Forty Rules — “ A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material , divine or mundane , Eastern or Western….Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water. ”

I have not only fallen in love with Rumi and Shams but understood the deeper meaning of life and the relationships. This book will grip your heart and will take you back to the 13th century with Rumi and Shams while you are still in the 20th century with Ella and Aziz. Little did I know about Sufism and Rumi , this book made me enter its mystic world and Oh! I am not returning back!

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The journey of the centuries through this book is beautiful and serene. The engagement of both the worlds is extremely unique. However, the narration is vaguely boring! A one-time read certainly, you’ll not be disappointed!