The Forty Rules of Love

The Forty Rules of Love
A Novel of Rumi
Reviewed: Nemat Sharif
Written by: Elif Shafak
Translation: Khaled Al-Jubaili
Page: 500 pages, first edition 2012 Publisher:
Tawa Culture, Publishing and Media, London

“Real filth is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of -dir-t that cannot be cleansed with pure waters, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love will purify your heart.”
Rule XV (p. 162)

This novel is characterized by the strength of its plot, its captivating narrative, and it’s linking of the past to the present through the selection of historical and contemporary characters, and parallels important events in the general narrative of Sufism in Islam, as a movement of dervishes throughout the ages, with modern characters.
According to Zoroaster air, water, earth and fire are "sacred" elements of nature. Humans need air to breathe, water to drink, fire to cook, and land to grow plants for their survival. Earth, air and water must be kept free from impurity. Greek philosophy as well assumed that the universe consists of four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. As for the concept of nothingness´-or-space, it represents things that are known through their absence, for nothingness is not the absence of existence in all times and places, but it is an existence that our senses cannot sense, but can be perceived by the mind and subconscious feeling.
The book consists of four parts in one volume, and each part bears the name of one of the four elements mentioned above. These elements form the ground on which the construction of the eastern and western philosophical edifices depends. The first (in the east) takes a spiritual -dir-ection and the second (in the west) a rational orientation. Thus the four elements represent the philosophical basis for both. In a sense they complement each other. Originally, they reflected the duality which Allah the almighty endowed humans. Scientific progress in the West in this era is matched by the spiritual and intellectual progress in the east that preceded the West by centuries. From a historical point of view, they are equal but different. And this represents the historical dimension in the eyes of the writer, just as Karl Marx, for example, had a materialistic view of history and its developments in its various stages. Therefore, we believe that the author sees in herself the link´-or-bridge that connects the east with the West, life, philosophy and spirituality.
Mu tazilism (Arabic: المعتزلة al-Muʿ-;-tazilah) is the first and largest school of thought in early Islam, where it developed an Islamic type of rationalism and human freedom of action. As a corollary, the distinction between choice and fatalism in Islam. Sufis and Dervishes are on opposite extreme by total surrender to the divine love the guiding light for humans in this life. Mystic surrender to Allah peaks in a form of “nirvana”´-or-unity with God. Therefore, submission to divine love (Sufi´-or-Darvish) is the ultimate reach to the destiny that God intended for the Sufi (mystic humans). This love and submission is exemplified in the traveling clairvoyant dervish Shams Tabrizi.
Indeed, this is two novels in one volume, as if two families lived a similar lifestyle, with eight hundred years apart. Therefore, if you read it in the apparent sense is what you understand from the rules of divine love and social relations at that time and environment (the era of Seljuk Turks)-;- a reading of a way of life unlike the vast majority of people. There is a second reading characterized by an intellectual and spiritual depth. Yet, there are others who dive deeper, that is, to read it and think about deciphering it to extract pearls from those creatures in the deeper sea of the novel (characters) with a cosmic dimension and what they mean. For example, the parallelism of some events in the novel, the relationship between East and West and their role in the integration of man spiritually and intellectually. This is exactly what the fourth rule of divine love calls for “Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.”
Hence, two overlapping novels reflect two spiritual experiences separated by eight centuries. The first taking place in the thirteenth century AD in Konya, Turkey and the second in our time (2008) in the United States of America. Some events and important characters in the ‘two novels’ are paralleled, representing the extreme ends between East and West for dramatic and artistic reasons, the unity of man despite geography and time, as part of a larger whole, the universe. From them, we conclude that the East is the source of spirituality and mysticism and continues to shine its light throughout the world as far as the United States. The West, especially after the European Renaissance, has become the source of science and technology. Renaissance has not met man s spiritual need. Alienation, psychological and social ailments, and anxiety replaced serenity, trust in God, and peace of mind.
Oriental spirituality appears in Aziz Zahara, a Dutch man whose wife died in a car accident. He tends to a life of Sufism and dervishes, works as a photographer for media organizations and travels the world while Ella Rubinstein reviews his novel "The Sweet Blasphemy" about the life of Rumi and his spiritual guide Shams Tabrizi. Ella was going through a "midlife crisis" in her forties with a husband and three children. Ella e-mails Aziz and begins a romance with him. Her psychological crisis and behavior may symbolically represent the global political changes, differences between Rumi’s time as compared to our time with all its psychological and social disturbances. Perhaps some aspects of our reading of the novel, such as the latter, are an unintended consequence,´-or-inclusion in the plot of the novel. Some of that is normal, do not we all at times behave in a way leads to unintended consequences!
The chapters of Aziz Zahara’s novel are carefully and skillfully inserted in between the chapters of Rumi’s (a successful Muslim cleric) novel, and Shams Tabrizi, (a clairvoyant, travelling dervish), who begins his wandering from Samarkand to Baghdad and then Konya, Turkey. He meets Rumi, who begins a gradual transformation into an ascetic mystic poet. Rumi’s fame and poetry travelled the world over, regardless of language, race, and geography. Aziz and Ella visit Konya, where Aziz dies of cancer and Ella buries him in Konya after a solemn funeral in the manner of Sufis and dervishes.
These are the main lines of the novel that represent the spiritual heritage of Shams Tabrizi and Jalal al-Din Rumi and his school of coed spiritual training for dervishes, and his unmatched poetry on divine love. Ella and Aziz also represent the perpetuity of history and the connection between past and present and between East and West. Ella s return to love and spirituality also represents the human longing and nostalgia for love, spirituality in human nature-;- escape from alienation and erosion in capitalist societies-;- and her relationship with and betrayal of her husband David are all parts of that erosion. As for the fact that she is Jewish, and he is a Christian, it is no different from Rumi s marriage to a Christian -convert-. Also it perhaps indicates that Christianity as the most tolerant between Islam and Judaism as a Christian man and a Christian women find love in other religions.
Zahara s travels (the lifestyle that Shams lived)-;- not marrying Ella, and his death with illness parallel to Tabrizi s unconsumed marriage to Kimia, and getting killed by fanatics. Kimia was fifteen with a spiritual talent of another kind (Jawher, Rumi s deceased first wife, was talking to her about him) while the unconsumed marriages may indicate the lack of convergence and complementarity of the two sides, reason and spirituality, the duality of human nature. The rapid scientific and technological development in the West, the East s attachment to spirituality framed by religious inability to break free and launch into new spaces. The West was able to take the path of reason and bring about a civilization of science and technology, but this breakthrough came in some aspects at the expense of spirituality. Yes, reason and liberation on the one hand and spirituality on the other represent the two parts of the human being (in its individual and collective senses). The second rule of love states “The Path to the Truth is a labor of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge, and ultimately prevail over your nafs (1) with your heart. Knowing your ego will lead you to the knowledge of God." (p. 62) Islam acknowledges the duality in man, stressing the roles of mind and heart, good and evil, animalistic and humanistic urges. Life requires a balance´-or-an ‘ego’ to help strike that balance.
The crossing of time in Tabrizi s life changed Ella s life forever, turning her from an ordinary woman to a lover who sacrificed all she has for love. Perhaps this is a reference to the unity of spirituality in all religions, especially if we look at Kira’s experience, Rumi s second wife, as she subconsciously made the image of the Virgin Mary from the dough as she baked. Tabrizi advised her that there was nothing wrong with doing that as she would have a baby girl and she could name her Mary. “The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal enlightenment, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.” (One of the Forty Rules, p. 317)
The wandering and trips made by both Shams Tabrizi and Aziz Zahara are only a reflection of the journey of Sufism internally and the experiences they went through, regardless of trends, -dir-ections, regions and religions. Sufism is an internal journey for a lover who travels distances and traverses the vast world and beyond in search of God.
Does the mystic clairvoyant sees/perceives with his delicate senses in his inner journey sounds and music in his ‘cosmic’ visions that others do not hear´-or-see the metaphysical sensory experiences by Tabrizi, Zahara and Kimia? Can their experiences be understood perhaps from a scientific perspective? Scientific progress is knocking on cosmic doors in this regard. For example, star remnants, called "dead stars," emit monotonous sounds and regular radio radiation that some call the "pulse of the universe." The Qur an calls such stars "the knocking and piercing star" (Arabic: الطارق والنجم الثاقب )! While the movement of heavenly bodies has become a scientific axiom. These cosmic advantages are reflected in the human psyche, but are felt only by the delicate senses of a Sufi. “The universe is turning, constantly and relentlessly, and so are the earth and the moon, but it is nothing other than a secret embedded within us human beings that makes it all move. With that knowledge we dervishes will dance our way through love and heartbreak even if no one understands what we are doing. We will dance in the middle of a brawl´-or-a major war, all the same. We will dance in our hurt and grief, with joy and elation, alone and together, as slow and fast as the flow of water. We will dance in our blood. There is a perfect harmony and subtle balance in all that is and was in the universe.." (p. 491). For example, the scientists heard, "It is as if someone knocks several times in a second. But at first they imagined that this star beats like a human heart, so they called these stars pulsars, but it turned out later that they make knock-like sounds, they call them giant hammers that ring like a bell." Rumi also was inspired by the beats of his son, the jeweler, when he was knocking gold, his final touches to the dervish dance. One cannot escape thinking of ‘channeling’ (2) and ‘clairvoyance’ (3) (Tabrizi and Rumi), and (Kimia)!
The female voice is weak in the novel and appears subordinate to her male counterpart including Ella, an educated American woman. In the east, both Kira and Kimia lived in the shadow of Rumi’s character-;- as Kira, who -convert-ed to Islam to marry Rumi. Kimia, a young woman, who decided to marry the wrong man. She did not benefit from her talent i.e. communicating with spirits of the dead (Rumi s first wife). Ella, in her marriage and her relationship with Zahara looked up to the men to lead her. She did not absorb her experience with Zahara, who died in Konya, Turkey. Ella returned to Amsterdam alone, unsure of what to do next. She neither found divine love, nor a man to love and cherish. She neither absorbed Sufism nor became one. "Our religion is the religion of love. And we are all connected in a chain of hearts. If and when one of the links is broken, another one is added elsewhere. For every Shams of Tabriz who has passed away, there will emerge a new one in a different age, under a different name. Names change, they come and go, but the essence remains the same" (p. 491)
Despite the failure of Kimia in her marriage, but her intelligence and abilities convinced Rumi to consider other females into his teaching and training class. This led to start a Sufi movement among women by teaching his granddaughters (daughters of Saladin) and before them of course Kimia herself. As for the escape of Desert Rose prostitution with the support of Tabrizi. In a sense this is the strongest female voice, a lone voice from desperation, found a way out of misery.
It seems that the novel “Sweet Blasphemy” allegedly attributed to Aziz Zahara includes all the chapters of the lives of Tabrizi and Rumi. Although mixed in the novel "The Forty Rules of Love", Aziz and Ella s chapters cannot and is not reasonable to attribute to Aziz Zahara himself. How could he write the story of his own death and Ella’s return to Amsterdam? Therefore, we must assume that "Sweet Blasphemy" was a novel written by Zahara and then the author added to it the story of Zahara as a presumption. But the shift in the narrative is not clear. Although, this is a gap in the plot, however, it is well covered by the technique of chapters in which a character speaks for him/herself in each chapter.
The title “Sweet Blasphemy” suggests that Sufism and dervish is blasphemy, but it is sweet, justified by the context of the novel, perhaps for two reasons. The first of which is to fill the psychological need of the individual human being and guide his search for God and love of Him. The second is to steer the concept of love to that of God the Almighty-;- to spread it in society as a role model. A Darvish applies what he believes in and teaches it by example to those who are receptive to spiritual transformation. But in the end, the title "Sweet Blasphemy" represents the writer s view of Sufism as departure from religion. But it is sweet because love is a natural need for humans and searches for God to love and adore Him. This represents a conscious example for others in the collective existence of human beings, and thus this exaggerated adoration approaches the idea of "pantheism", when exaggeration reaches -union- and integration with the divine. This is indeed ‘association with God’ from an Islamic point of view. Islam separates the divine self from human beings, as he is the Creator, and human beings are His creatures. He wants us to worship him, not to become God,´-or-a part of him.
Appending the phrase "a novel of Rumi" to the title "The Forty Rules of Love" perhaps unfair. Tabrizi is the clairvoyant, the author of the forty rules of love, and he is the spiritual guide whose teachings changed Rumi from a traditional religious scholar to a world famous Sufi poet. The reader must feel that it is only fair to be "a novel of Tabrizi". Perhaps for commercial reasons, Rumi was well known as a scholar and Sufi poet with a social and religious status in Islamic circles of his time to the present day.
The novel covers about 18.5 years of Tabrizi s life. Then he is killed by fanatics. Intolerance remains the deadliest epidemic in the Middle East. While covering about a year and a half of Aziz Zahara s life, who died of cancer. By comparison, in today’s societies more people die of diseases and epidemics brought by contemporary science, technology and pollution, than natural causes. Tabrizi’s inner journey (spiritually) took up his entire life. He left behind through Rumi a legacy of Sufi literature, a school and followers. Aziz Zahara s internal journey did not exceed four years. His Journey began after the death of his wife in a car accident. He did not leave a legacy, but the novel "Sweet Blasphemy" according to the novel. Tabrizi and Rumi are historical figures who actually lived in the thirteenth century AD in Konya, Turkey, and their story is based on real life events and experience. As for the characters of Aziz and Ella, they are fictional.
Elif Shafak takes the account that after Tabrizi’s return from Damascus, he did not leave Konya. He married there and was killed by fanatics in Konya. But there is at least a second account that he left Konya to return to his birthplace in Tabriz (Iran), but died in Khoy in Northern Iran, and buried there. His shrine and mausoleum are next to a tower erected in a memorial park. The mausoleum was nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Three weeks after Tabrizi s murder, Alaeddin goes to face his father and still drops of the dead man s blood on the hem of his dress (!) Rumi sees this and Alaeddin confesses taking part in the crime as he guided the killers. Obviously fanaticism was not the only reason for Tabrizi’s murder, Alaeddin wished to marry Kimia, but Tabrizi married her, and Ras al-Wawi hated him because he encouraged Desert Rose to escape from his brothel and take refuge at Rumi’s (and Aladdin) house, while Bibbers was a fan of Desert Rose and visited the brothel to see her. Rashad, a student of Sheikh Yassin, is the only one who can be described as a fanatic as a reason for his participation in this crime. Others whose names were not mentioned, their motives are being influenced by others. Intolerance is therefore one of the many motives for the murder. This is also unclear.
Finally, the appearance of the name of Desert Rose as Desert Flower, perhaps a lapse from the translator. The name may indicate that she is of Arab origin because as usual brothels bring women from distant areas (a desert) where they have no support´-or-fear for their lives. Prostitution is forbidden in Islam, rejected by society and entails severe penalties ﴾-;- The fornicating woman and the fornicating man, flog each one of them with one hundred stripes. No pity for them should prevail upon you in the matter of Allah’s religion, if you really believe in Allah and the Last Day-;- and a group of believers must witness their punishment. ﴿-;-
1) Nafs: an Islamic term usually translated as self´-or-psyche. In Freudian terms, nafs would combine most parts of id moving up on the ego without touching´-or-reaching the superego on the continuum of id, ego, and superego.
2) Channeling is a means of communicating with any consciousness that is not in human form by allowing that consciousness to express itself through the channel (or channeler).
We live in a multidimensional universe. The physical plane is only the first (and most dense) of seven planes. The next plane is the astral-;- we dwell on the lower astral plane before birth and after death. The other planes are the causal, akashic, mental, messianic, and buddhaic. https://www.michaelteachings.com/what_is_channeling.html. Last accessed on 6 July 2023.
3) Clairvoyance means “clear seeing”, and it is one of the major psychic abilities, which allows you to tap into the knowledge of your soul, and the collective knowledge of all souls of the universe, including those of the past and those not manifested yet. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/clairvoyance. Last accessed on 6 July 2023.

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