From afar, Sufism may look like a mystery ball that is complicated to open and engage with, but Elif Shafak’s The 40 Rules of Love locks you in a closed room and lets Sufism tell its tale. The richness of the story hits you like a splash of water on your face that’s meant to wake you up from a deep slumber. Creating an interesting narrative, the story starts with Ella, a 40-year-old housewife who has turned her life upside down after making a few major decisions in her life, that were very unlike her. As the book starts to recall how she came to make those decisions, we are gifted with two stories going parallelly, one of Ella and another of Rumi from the 1200s. Yes, that Rumi, the orator, the advocate and poet of love. In a world where practicality is hailed as the ultimate skill, Shafak successfully champions the strength of emotions and Love.
Sufism, even though a practice that emerged amongst Muslims, is often regarded as a mystic practice far detached from Islam. But the 40 Rules of Love, not only bring Islam and the Quran in a different light for non-Islamic readers, but it also holds the mirror for Islamic extremists and their literal interpretation of the Holy Book. For example, a girl reading the Quran in the story confronts one of the characters about the passages in the Quran as she asks, “There are some parts in Surah Nisa where men are said to be superior to women. It even says men can beat their wives…” Opening the avenues of interpretation of the Holy Book, Shafak displays the love that resides in the Quran and the love that resides in Sufis that they can see beyond the lyrical lines. This comes beautifully when Shams draws by contrasting two interpretations. One, as he recites “Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.” Next, he closes his eyes and recites the same verse differently: “Men are the support of women as God gives some more means than others, and because they spend of their wealth (to provide for them). So women who are virtuous women are obedient to God and guard the hidden as God has guarded it. As for women you feel are averse, talk to them suasively; then leave them alone in bed (without molesting them) and go to bed with them (when they are willing). If they open out to you, do not seek an excuse for blaming them. Surely God is sublime and great.”
Let that sink in…
While my bookshelf is filled with fantasies, classic literature, love stories and murder mysteries, it was enthralling to read the 40 Rules of Love, which brings the beauty of spirituality to the pages. This too, Shafak does in a contemporary way so that readers of all ages today can grasp what she is trying to share – the universal and age-old idea that love is the ultimate God and God is all about Love. Simultaneously, she manages to shed light on the different forms of love, the beauty of courage, the pain of attachment, the hypocrisy of society in the form of preconceived notions and morality in different centuries, the art of letting go, and of course, the golden list of 40 Rules of Love.
