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The Forty Rules of Love

By Elif Shafak

قواعد العشق الأربعون

Elif Shafak's global bestseller on Shams of Tabriz and Rumi, with a modern parallel story — the most popular Sufi novel of the century.

Depth

At a glance

Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

200020102020

LiteratureSpirituality and Sufism

Overview

The novel by Elif Shafak (2009): two parallel stories, an American housewife who reads a manuscript about the meeting of Jalal al-Din Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and her life changes through forty Sufi rules of love. 1

Legacy

One of the most widely circulated Turkish novels in the world; it reintroduced Sufism to millions of Western readers in the form of modern love. 1

People and things also explored

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)· The angelic and the satanic inspiration (lamma)· Asking people for help (al-masala)· The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)· Tabattul (withdrawal from the world)· al-Tanahmir: the Himyaritic speech remnant· Intimacy with God (uns billah)

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The Forty Rules of Love”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/arbaon-qaida-lil-hubb/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Related

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)

The body of proper conduct the believer is commanded in his words, deeds and relations with God and His servants; from the formula 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day' in Abu Hurayra's hadith Ibn Rajab derives that these traits are of the traits of iman and that deeds enter into iman, dividing the hadith's three commands into what belongs to God's rights — speaking good or keeping silent — and what belongs to His servants' rights — honouring the neighbour, withholding harm from him and honouring the guest; he transmits Aswad ibn Asram's report of the Prophet's counsel 'do not say with your tongue except what is good and do not extend your hand except to good', and that the tongue's uprightness is of the traits of iman; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: speaking good or keeping silent, leaving what does not concern one, 'do not become angry', and loving for one's brother what one loves for oneself.