The Forty Rules of Love

"The Forty Rules of Love", a book gifted with affection and purchased from Amazon India, has become a cherished possession for my girlfriend. This book, penned by the talented Elif Shafak, is a mesmerizing tale of love that transcends the boundaries of time and space.The narrative beautifully intertwines the lives of a modern American housewife and a thirteenth-century poet, Rumi. It is a testament to the transformative power of love, and it has deeply touched my girlfriend. She was moved by Shafak's eloquent prose and the profound wisdom embedded in the forty rules of love. The book has not only entertained her but also enlightened her, making her reflect on the nature of love and life.Her emotions were stirred as she turned each page, living through the characters and their experiences. The book has rekindled her love for reading, making her appreciate the power of words and the emotions they can evoke. She has been lost in its pages, lived through the characters, and emerged with a deeper understanding of love and life.In conclusion, "The Forty Rules of Love" is more than just a book. It is an experience, a journey of love and self-discovery that has left a lasting impression on her. It has been a source of joy, reflection, and inspiration, making it a perfect gift for any book lover.

“Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transforma-tion. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough.”🍁❤️‍🩹.This book has to be my one of the best reads till now because it is one of those days where I didn’t wanted to finish reading it as I couldn’t get enough of it. It is one of those books for me which I will never stop recommending to anyone. One story happens in Northampton and Boston in the present modern days, where Ella is a homemaker whose life looks like a perfect picture to others’ eyes. In Konya during the 12th century between a Sufi Poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, initially, Rumi was a teacher and preacher of religious sermons. But when Rumi met Shams his life changed completely. Shams’ love helps Rumi’s transformation. The narrative is intriguing, I was literally devouring each and every word. This book is a sanctum of spiritualism in one of its finest ways. Some very deep feminist thoughts are voiced by the writer. A quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verses that takes Ella the protagonist as well as us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored. There’s beautiful reference of Qays and Laila which is just too powerful and that has to be my favourite part. The 40 rules explored in this book, the narratives and symbolism leading to it are just so mesmerising. I would suggest every reader to read this book atleast once in their life but let me say it’s too intense so handle with care.This book has to be one of my favourites 🍁❤️‍🩹

Rumi’s words have always made a profound impact on me, it has been difficult to read and pass on without settling the internal turbulence caused by his words. In this book, Elif gives us a peek into what made Rumi - the transformation of the preacher Rumi into the immortal Sufi Poet. It will help to understand his work much better. And very much like Rumi’s poems, Elif’s writing was powerful enough to make me pause after every chapter and ponder.I am impressed by the manner in which Elif handled this book, at times seems to be borrowing from Rumi’s thoughts ( I could be totally wrong here) , but connecting with the lay audience like me in contemporary manner. Her choice of a storyline of Ella – a lady facing an extreme midlife crisis, intrigued with the concept of love - makes an immediate connection. Elif takes you on a journey into the world of Sufi’s through Forty rules of love – to teach you how important it is admire and appreciate your inner self, without seeking for approvals, changing the way you treat yourself, leading life through changes rather than resisting them.Some rules made me shudder – like “Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity. At every moment and with each new breadth, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one way to be born into a new life : to die before death”.While there would have been many of presenting these thoughts, I am glad that Elif decided to base it on Shams and Rumi. I always felt a bit cheated reading The Alchemist as I felt it was borrowed heavily from Rumi’s Poem “IN BAGHDAD, DREAMING OF CAIRO: IN CAIRO, DREAMING OF BAGHDAD” .While I was reading this book, my thoughts were time and again drawn to another great work – The Razor’ Edge (Somerset Maugham). There are some difference of course, like where Shams feels “Intellect and love are made of different material, Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks nothing” , Somerset would say “I found something wonderfully satisfying in the notion that you can attain Reality by knowledge. In the latter ages the sages of India in recognition of human infirmity admiited that salvation may be won by way of love and and the way of works, but they never denied that the noblest way, though the hardest, is by way of knowledge, for its instrument is the most precious facility of man, his reason”. But then when it is said “A God that can be understood is no God. Can there be anything more stupendous than the conception that the universe has no beginning and no end, but passes everlastingly from growth to equilibrium, from equilibrium to decline, from decline to dissolution, from dissolution to growth and so on till eternity?”, that is a proof good enough as any that both of them are equal Sufi’s at heart, separated by a few centuries.Is it too late to learn, can one really abandon one's responsibilities and die before death? Shams does that it to his wife, was he fair to her to have got into that encumbrance? …… perhaps we will never know. In the story Ella decides to break free, but the children are not born by their choice but were born by Ella’s choice, is it fair for them to suffer…… perhaps the debate will go on. When does one have the right to live a life of one’s choice? I lean on Somerset for the answer “ I am of the earth, earthy; I can only admire the radiance of such a rare creature, I cannot step into his shoes and enter into his innermost heart as I can sometimes think I can do with persons more allied to the common run of men”Do read the book. It will move you.