The Forty Rules of Love
Noël Staples reviews a moving story set against the background of Sufism
The Forty Rules of Love is a fictionalised account of the encounter in the year 1244 between the Dervish, Shams of Tabriz, and the Turkish theologian Jalaluddin Rumi in Konya. The account is woven around the story of Ella Rubinstein, wife of David, a successful Massachusetts dentist, who comes to realise she is unfulfilled and unloved in her marriage and that she has been distracting herself over the years by being something of a ‘Stepford wife’, house-proud, devoting much time to creating beautiful and varied meals. Meanwhile David, unknown to Ella, is unfaithful.
Ella has taken a job as reader with a literary agency and is given a new novel about the Turkish mystic Rumi, Sweet Blasphemy, on which to write a report. Out of curiosity she googles the author’s name, AZ Zahara, and notes down the email address from his personal blog. And so commences a twenty-first century version of the epistolary novel!
Through this literary ‘vehicle’ we follow Ella’s developing relationship with Aziz Zahara while he, Aziz, pursues the encounter of Shams of Tabriz with the theologian Rumi, as a result of which Rumi is to become the greatest of all Sufi mystic poets. As the two stories unfold we learn the ‘Forty Rules of Love’. Sufism is often called the religion of love and Rumi is the poet of that love. Sufism describes the relationship between humans and God as that of lover and beloved.
Reading this novel will not only introduce you to the tenets of Sufism, but, in discovering the forty rules dotted about the text and always in italics, we come to realise how close we Quakers are to Sufis. I can do no better than to quote some of the rules:
Rule 5: Intellect and love are different materials. Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything. Intellect is always cautious and advises, ‘Beware too much ecstasy,’ whereas love says ‘Oh never mind! Take the plunge!’ Intellect does not easily break down, whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are hidden among the ruins. A broken heart hides treasures.
Rule 10: East, west, south or north makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey a journey within. If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond.
Rule 12: The quest for Love changes us. There is no seeker among those who search for Love who has not matured on the way. The moment you start looking for Love, you start to change within and without.
We can just as easily think of this latter as Grace! Grace waits patiently for us to stop struggling with our intellect. When you finally give up, grace comes and is always undeserved. Grace changes you utterly, past and present, inside and out!
Rule 32: Nothing should stand between yourself and God. Not imams, priests, rabbis or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership. Not spiritual masters, not even your faith. Believe in your values and your rules, but never lord them over others. If you keep breaking other people’s hearts, whatever religious duty you perform is no good…
These are just a taste of these wonderful rules. In my copy I have marked the pages and may very well type them all out for my own benefit. This is an exquisitely crafted book, a work of great labour and research. Along with Ella’s journey of self-discovery we meet the seventeenth-century characters Shams encounters on his way to find Rumi: a rough and ready tavern keeper, a drunk, a murderer, a prostitute, servants, the master of a dervish lodge and many others. The tender hearted will be moved to tears in places. All Quakers should read it – to be both delighted, and educated.
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak. Penguin Books. ISBN: 9780141047188. £8.99.
