The Forty Rules of Love - Elif Shafak

I have a new ability: I seem drawn to the right book at the right time - it’s almost as if the book is yelling “Yoo-hoo, over here”... well, not exactly like that, but that’s the only way I know how to explain it. If only everything in life was so clear.

My eyes settled on The Forty Rules of Love when I was at St. John’s Airport, just as my Dad ran off to grab a coffee. I grabbed it right off the shelf and didn’t think for another moment about whether it was worth my time – I knew it was!!

This novel is pure and simple magic and a pleasure to read from start to finish. To-date, I can’t think of a story that has inspired my mind and heart and flowed in such a way as this one did. I made little stars along the way to mark where I must go back and read again the poetic little scriptures that seem to hit the nail right on the head.

About the poet and scholar, Rumi, Elif Shafak takes us on a journey through time to Konya, Turkey, and the Anatolia/Asia Minor area in the thirteenth century to Rumi's moment of enlightenment, love and connection to his spiritual advisor, Shams of Tabriz. Sham's is a wandering, dancing dervish who practices Sufism.

There is so much more to this book than I can explain. Like Shams of Tabriz says, “There are different levels of wisdom, truth, and vision to everything” (he was speaking about the Qur'an).

There’s also a parallel story of modern day love between the writer of Sweet Blasphemy, Rumi and Sham’s story, and a married woman who’s writing a report of the novel for work. This contrast was nice and made the rules of love easy to apply to the world we live in today.

The fortieth rule made me cry and, although it closes off the novel nicely, in a way it brings us right back to the beginning, letting us know that there may be lessons but no rules, and this may be the hardest lesson of all. We are responsible, if not entirely for our path, for our spiritual growth and actions and how we view all things.

“Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step (Faith). That’s the hardest part and that’s what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.”