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Writer's pictureAmreen Khan

A book studded with gems and stones: The Forty Rules of Love

Hola my avid readers!

Hope you all are having a great weekend! I wanted to share about this captivating, mind blowing book which I was suggested to read few months back. It was indeed worth to order this book immediately after reading the words sent by a friend.

Thank you for this SJ!

It is one of the rules………

” It is never too late to ask yourself ‘Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within? Even if a single day in our life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity. At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one way to be born into a new life: to die before death.”
The Forty Rules of Love

The Forty Rules of Love


I read many books in last few years. But I never came across a book like this. A book that took me on a new journey of life, rather the same journey with an extremely new perspective. A book that I preferred to carry wherever I go and read no matter where I was sitting or heading. I would have definitely recommended this book if you crossed my path while I was reading it. I have slept and woke up reading it. I have traveled with, have taken my meals with, have enjoyed my hours waiting at bank with this whimsical tale. The coffee stains on the cover says it all. No matter where I was, alone or with someone, you could have found me lost deep in the book or maybe staring empty walls, exhaling my breathe thinking about one of the rules. My engrossment with the book made me love my solitude.

“Here I share my sheer love for this charismatic, spell bounding novel The Forty Rules of Love, the characters and the way Shafak has described them.”

    The book is a novel within a novel. The Forty Rules of Love tells two parallel stories that mirror each other across two very different cultures where Ella and Rumi, the two characters from both stories are forced to question and then abandon the apparent safety and security of their lives for the uncertainty, ecstasy, and heartbreak of love. It’s a book studded with stones and gems embedded in gold (according to me).

      The Forty Rules of Love is a novel about Rumi the Turkish preacher who turned out to be one of the great poets of that time, and his encounter with a wandering dervish, an Islamic mystic named Shams of Tabriz. Shams is a homeless vagrant who interprets the holy Qur’an as a text of love and forgiveness. He falls in with Rumi almost as if destined; in fact, both men have no doubt that it was destined. Most of the story talks about Shams and his wanderings from Baghdad to the city of Konya, where stays Rumi, reputed as a powerful preacher and a holy man. His soul’s purpose is to transform Rumi a beloved but unmystical preacher into one of the world’s great poets. Rumi is a willing student, but his family and community resent Shams deeply for upsetting their settled way of life. Rumi is admired, even revered in his community and Shams lead him beyond the comforts of his respectable way of life.

“It’s a taste of mystical union, divine love and the deep harmony that arises when the false self- constructed to meet society’s demands for respectability is shed and the true self emerges.”

This captivating novel has been written from perspectives of different characters of the story including dervishes and townspeople, sinner and beggars and zealots and prostitutes, moving the story through a series of their voices. Rumi’s wife and sons have their voices too, where Rumi’s family feels completely isolated as Shams and Rumi develop an ever deeper friendship.

      Shafak has published ten books, seven of which are novels. She writes in both Turkish and English. Shafak blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling, bringing out the multiple stories of minorities, immigrants, women subcultures and global souls. Her work draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, as well as deep interest in history, philosophy, oral culture, and cultural politics.

      I highly recommend rather force you to read this book but also apologize in advance because I can’t let you borrow it from me. The book is part of my treasure and I am a bit possessive about it.

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