Short Summary Of “ Forty Rules Of Love” Brief summary of "Forty Rules of Love" by Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is a Turkish feminist writer, born in Strasbourg, France in 1971. She is an award winning writer, and her books are translated in more than twenty languages. She has been living in different cities including Ankara, Michigan, Berlin, Boston, Amman and especially Istanbul, with whom she has a special affinity. In this regard she has written a novel, “The Bastards of Istanbul”.

 

Themes of her novels are chiefly, feminism, mysticism and love. She has been interested in mystic beliefs in Islam. Shafak's first novel, Pinhan (The Mystic) was awarded the "Rumi Prize" in 1998, which is given to the best work in mystical literature in Turkey. Her second novel, ŞehrinAynaları (Mirrors of the City), brings together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting in the seventeenth century. Shafak's recent novel, The Forty Rules of Love, focused on Love of East and West, past and present, spiritual and mundane, all in the light of the spiritual harmony between Mowlana Rumi and Shams Tabriz. This novel is a reflection of her interest with Sufism (shafak).

“THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE” is a novel based on the spiritual friendship of a great Islamic scholar and Sufi poet, Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi and a wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz. Elif Shafak has used a second narrative technique. The novel has two plots; the main plot revolves around the story of an unhappy married woman, Ella Rubinstein cheated by her husband. She gets a job as a reader for a literary agency.  Her first assignment is to read Sweet Blasphemy, a novel by an unknown author Aziz Z. Zahara. The Sweet Blasphemy; a story of the friendship of Rumi and Shams Tabriz serves as a second narrative and subplot of the novel.

THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE deals with the theme of feminism and Sufism or mysticism. Main or primary plot reveals the feminist elements of the novel set in the recent era, while the second narrative of sweet blasphemy focuses on the Sufism in the 13^th century; the protagonist of the second narrative, Shams Tabraiz is a wandering dervish, who meets with a great Islamic scholar, Jalaluddin Rumi and invert the course of his life. In the first narrative,  as Ella Rubinstein struggles with growing dissatisfaction with her home life, Zahara’s novel opens up a new world where love takes center stage in the search for the truth and oneness with God. Intrigued, Ella locates Zahara’s blog and begins corresponding with him, an exchange that grows into an unexpected love.

The peculiarity of the novel is the forty rules of love designed by Shams Tabriz. Elif Shafaq has created the different situations to speak the rules of love one by one through characters. Most of the rules are told by Shams Tabriz or some other character becomes the mouthpiece of wandering dervish. These rules are the pearls of wisdom which describe the Sufi philosophy of love, oneness, and revelation of inner-self. As stated in the following rules:

Ø  How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blames welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we. Likewise

Ø  Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely. But eventually, it is best to find a person who will be your mirror. Remember only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you (Tabriz's).

 These rules are created by Shams Tabriz and are passed onto Rumi and finally to Ella who ultimately explores their-self and follows the course of truth, love, and oneness.

Shafak has depicted many features of a Sufi through the forty rules of Shams and her characters. Shams Tabriz looks the world differently and transfers his mystic philosophy of love in Rumi and ultimately Rumi becomes a mystic poet who propels a message of love through his poetry. Novel’s main focus is on Sufism which leads the characters towards the depths of love and it also deals with the self-exploratory journey of its characters and especially of Rumi.