The Forty Rules of Love is a novel written by the Turkish author Elif Shafak,“Our Compass” , International Herald Tribune, November 27, 2013"Looking for God: Following the Path of Love","alif.id", October 13, 2019"Books of the week: From Stephen King's The Institute to Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, our picks","www.firstpost.com", September 16, 2019 The book was published in March 2009."Analysis: The Forty Rules of Love" , “Analysis of Love”, 2010 It is about the Persian mystic poet Maulana Jalal-Ud-Din, known as Rumi and his companion Shams Tabrizi.“The Forty Rules of Love – review” , “The Guardian”, December 5, 2014Rashid, Yamna."The Forty Rules of Love taught me What i know now, it's been my motivation, inspiration and has helped me become a better person and it holds a speshal place in my heart", "Shifa Khan (Future Best Times Seller", June 1, 2017 This book explains how Shams transformed a scholar into a Sufi (mystic) through love.Kazim, Maisam. “Overview of Forty Rules of Love”, “Pamir Times”, March 3, 2018 More than 750,000 copies of this book were sold in Turkey and France."Forty Rules Of Love by Elif Shafak", “lagazetteverdun”, November 29, 2016
Synopsis "A novel enclosed by a novel, The Forty Rules of Love tells two parallel stories that coincide each other across two very different cultures and seven intervening centuries." It starts when a housewife, Ella, gets a book called Sweet Blasphemy for an appraisal. This book is about a thirteenth century poet, Shams Tabrizi, who was the spiritual teacher to Rumi. The book presents Shams's Forty Love Rules at different intervals.“Sham’s of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love”, “The Vision Weekly”, November 4, 2011,Imran Ali Buth."The Forty Rules of Love","www.greaterkashmir.com", May 4, 2017 Sweet Blasphemy was structured in a way to focus on the five elements of nature: Water, Air, Earth, Fire and Void. The chapters in each section revealed a story in line with the nature of each element. The story presented in the novel is based on "love and spirituality that explains what it means to follow your heart"."Five must-read books that help shape the way we think about the world","www.thenational.ae", June 7, 2019
The letter "b" Every chapter of the book starts with letter "b". It is because the secret of Quran lies in Surah Al-Fatiha and its spirit is contained in the phrase Bismillah ir Rehman ir Rahim (In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and the most Merciful).“Book Review: The forty Rules of Love by Elif Safak”, November 3, 2014 The first Arabic letter of the Bismillah has a dot below it that symbolizes the Universe as per Sufism thoughts.Shweta. “Elif Shafak — Book Review of “40 Rules of Love”(Rumi & Shams of Tabriz )”, “Medium”, May 18, 2019 In the Urdu translation by Huma Anwar (Pakistan, 2017; ), this symbolic nuance has been retained — each chapter in the Urdu edition also begins with the letter "ب" (bey), mirroring the original concept. The translation received national literary recognition, including the Pakistan Academy of Letters Award for Best Translation (2017).
Reception The Forty Rules of Love won Prix ALEF* - Mention Spéciale Littérature Etrangère. It was also nominated for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. On 5 November 2019 BBC News listed The Forty Rules of Love on its list of the 100 most influential novels. It was included in the "Love, Sex & Romance - February" category of Novels That Shaped Our World."The Novels That Shaped Our World: BBC reveals 100-strong list","www.thebookseller.com", November 5, 2019
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