The Forty Rules of Love

The previous Prologue section revealed events that will happen (Ella does not file for divorce until the Fall of 2008); this Prologue section, and the rest of the narrative, explains the events that led up to the divorce. Ella reveals that David has been unfaithful throughout the marriage. Changes are abounding in Ella’s life; at a lunch, her daughter announces that she is engaged. This announcement makes Ella think about her disappointments in love. Interrupting them is a call from Ella’s boss, who encourages her to start reading Sweet Blasphemy, the first novel she’s been assigned. It’s about Rumi, and Ella doesn’t seem very interested until she begins reading.

The narrative then shifts to the book Ella is reading, Sweet Blasphemy by A.Z. Zahara. The rest of the narrative will switch back and forth between Sweet Blasphemy and Ella’s overarching narrative.

The Foreword to Sweet Blasphemy gives background information on the mystical poet and Islamic scholar Rumi and the wandering, heretical dervish Shams and their meeting in 1244, in the midst of the Crusades. Ultimately, Rumi and Shams were separated after their meeting due to rumor, slander, and attack.

The chapter opens with an assassin known as Jackal Head discussing his duties working for a local brothel while in pursuit of a future victim when a letter arrives requesting his services. The assassin meets with two men who tell him that they want him to murder a heretical dervish. After initially resisting the deal, the assassin is convinced when the men offer to pay him triple his normal fee. The chapter ends with the assassin reflecting upon the murder after the fact, recounting how he stabbed the dervish in a courtyard and dumped his body into a well. The assassin also notes how regretful he is for killing the dervish and how he feels haunted by the dervish’s memory.

Shams has a vision of his own murder but does not recognize the mournful man who finds him in the well. An innkeeper interrupts his vision and disparages Shams for being a dervish, as the innkeeper believes that God has left them behind and ridicules Sham for his pursuit of becoming closer to God. When Shams takes bread and soup and is unable to pay, he offers to read the innkeeper’s dreams as payment and the innkeeper accepts. As the innkeeper and Shams talk, two men begin to harass patrons of the inn and the innkeeper gets into a fight with them, disabling the pair from creating any further issues. In front of the rest of the patrons of the inn, the innkeeper taunts Shams and says that he was born to be violent in the pursuit of justice. Instead of reading his dreams, Shams reads the innkeeper’s palm and has a vision about the innkeeper, discovering that the innkeeper had a pregnant wife who was killed by the army of Genghis Khan. Sham tells him that his wife died without pain and says that the innkeeper can be a “lamb” again now that he is freed from mourning his wife and child. The innkeeper tells Shams that he does not like him and that he can stay the night but must be gone in the morning.

The book returns to Ella’s point of view. Ella has taken a break from reading Sweet Blasphemy to call her daughter’s boyfriend, Scott, and ask him not to marry her daughter; Ella says that her daughter is too young and that love will not solve everything and that Scott could very well fall in love with someone else in the future. This news spreads to Jeanette and David, neither of whom return home that evening. Ella is distraught by David’s absence, reflecting that in spite of his infidelity, David always returned home. In the midst of having dinner with the twins that night, Ella wonders about Shams and what he would see if he read her palm; in that moment, she has a daydream of a man with long hair on a motorcycle and she wonders what it might be like to be whisked away by him. Ella feels that she has not lived a bold life and is loveless.

After the skirmish in the inn, Shams goes upstairs to go to sleep and reflects upon his life as a dervish. Having traveled far and wide, Shams has developed a personal list based on his life experience that he calls The Forty Rules of the Religion of Love; the most important of these is following the heart, instead of the head. Because of his visions of his own death, Shams believes that the end of his life is drawing ever closer and prays to God to ask who he should pass all of his knowledge on to. Immediately, Shams’s room is aglow with blue light and the voice of God tells him to go to Baghdad; there, God says, Shams will meet his companion. Shams assumes this companion is the one who mourns for him in his visions.

Ella takes a break from reading, feeling distracted by the choices she has made. On a whim, she googles the author of Sweet Blasphemy, and discovers that A.Z. Zahara is a Sufi named Aziz who is currently traveling the world. Ella goes to Aziz’s personal website and finds an email address, which she copies down. Ella’s thoughts then go back to Jeanette and, feeling guilty, she places a call only to be cut off by Jeanette’s machine just after saying she is unhappy. Ella is stunned by her own admission and quickly writes an email to Aziz, introducing herself and telling him about asking Scott not to marry her daughter. She closes the email by saying that if he is ever in Boston, they should get a cup of coffee.

The chapter opens with the master, Baba Zaman opining about the judge, a wealthy and powerful leader in Baghdad. Baba Zaman and the judge discuss the glory of Baghdad but the Baba Zaman advises that the city is in its adolescence and will one day grow old and die. They also discuss Sufis; the judge does not like the mystics and thinks they are blasphemous and stir up unnecessary trouble. The judge and Baba Zaman are interrupted by Shams’s arrival. Shams insults the judge’s opulence and uses a story about Moses to discuss how being a dervish is an acceptable way to worship God. Baba Zaman seems apprehensive but appreciative of Shams and is slightly concerned for his wellbeing, given how Shams spoke to the powerful judge.

Waking from a nightmare in the early hours of the morning, Ella realizes that David has still not come home and Jeanette has not returned her call. After getting a glass of wine, Ella checks her email and realizes that Aziz has returned her message. In his email, Aziz mentions that he tied Ella’s name to a wishing tree with the hope that it would help resolve the situation with Jeanette. Ella is touched by the message and Aziz’s act.

Hiding behind a door after ditching kitchen duty, an aspiring dervish spies on a conversation between Baba Zaman and Shams. Shams tells Baba Zaman the story of how God took his dreams from him after his parents said that the visions he was having had only been dreams; after God did this, Shams says that he left him with the ability to interpret dreams. Shams tells Baba Zaman that he has come to Baghdad to pass on his knowledge to a novice, his companion. Baba Zaman asks Shams what he must give God in return for taking “God’s thunder” and passing on knowledge. Shams replies that he will give his head, which startles Baba Zaman. Finally, the novice is caught spying and runs away before he can speak to Shams.

To distract herself from her troubles with her daughter and husband, Ella sets about making a complicated dinner. She reflects on the routines of her life: her commitments around the house, the cooking, and her romantic life with her husband. Around the dinner table, Ella thinks about her husband’s affairs and suddenly has a revelation that one day she will leave this life behind for something else.

Baba Zaman reflects on the nine months that have passed since Shams arrived in Baghdad. Baba Zaman notes that Shams is unpredictable; some days, he will pour over an old book; on others, he will not touch books for weeks. Baba Zaman recounts some of Shams’s results, chief among them the fact that words are fallible while the language of love doesn’t require words. The chapter ends with Baba Zaman saying that the arrival of a letter ultimately changed everything for Shams but does not say what the letter contains.

In this chapter, Baba Zaman receives a letter from his friend, Seyyid Burhaneddin, about a brilliant scholar and spiritual leader named Rumi who is having visions similar to those that Sham has. While Seyyid does not know this, the description of the dreams is almost identical. Seyyid asks Baba Zaman if one of the dervishes under his tutorship might be the one that Rumi is seeing in his visions and suggests that if he pleases, he should send the companion to Rumi in Kayseri. In the closing of the letter, Seyyid warns that coming to Kayseri to work with Rumi would likely be at great risk to the companion due to jealousy and that it is likely that the companion might never return back to Baghdad for this reason.

After receiving the letter, Baba Zaman brings all of the dervishes together and asks if any of them would like to go be a companion to a scholar in Konya. There are nine volunteers, but after Baba Zaman reveals that whomever volunteers might not make it back to Baghdad, Shams is the only one still interested. Baba Zaman makes Shams wait for nine months before accepting him as the man who will go to Konya and tells him that he will be a comrade to Rumi during this time. Shams feels a renewed sense of purpose and that his patience during the nine-month wait has paid off.

Ella receives a voicemail from her daughter, Jeanette, who says that she understands Ella’s meddling in her relationship with Scott. Relieved, Ella calls Jeanette back and the two have an amicable conversation; before hanging up, Jeanette asks Ella if she’s happy and Ella says that it’s not easy to remain happy in the same relationship after such a long time. After they hang up, Ella emails Aziz and says that the wishing tree must have helped the reunion between mother and daughter happen.

Baba Zaman writes to Seyyid to tell him that Shams was the person meant to be Rumi’s companion and that Shams is on his way to Konya. Baba Zaman says that he waited to send Shams to Konya because he had grown fond of him and he knows he will not see him again.

Struggling in his pursuit to be a dervish, the ginger-haired novice recounts his trials and tribulations with the cook and the punishment he has received at the cook’s hands for disobedience. Feeling disillusioned with life at the dervish lodge, the novice asks Baba Zaman if he might accompany Shams on his journey to Konya; Baba Zaman says that perhaps the novice is not cut out for life at the lodge, adding that the novice needs to ask Shams if he will take the novice with him.

Shams prepares to go on his journey to Konya. Before he leaves, he shaves his hair and beard and Baba Zaman gives him three gifts to use along his way for whatever reason he might need them: a mirror, a handkerchief, and some ointment.

The novice follows Shams and is eventually caught by him. He tells Shams that he wants to be Shams’s mentee but when given the task of drinking wine, the novice refuses to do it; because of this, Shams says that the novice would not be a good student and cares too much what other people think. He says he will not take the novice as his student.

Instead of making breakfast from her family, Ella reads an email from Aziz, who is traveling to a new city. He says that he meditated on Ella’s aura and saw three colors that then appeared when he was looking for a tapestry for her; he offers to send it in the mail or wait for them to meet for coffee. In the midst of reading, Ella’s family comes downstairs for breakfast and asks why she has failed to make it.