I have just made qeema and some yakhni for a mutton pullao. The day is melting away fast and soon it will be night. While my pots hobnobbed on my stove, I finished the last pages of 'Forty Rules of Love' by Elif Shafaq, a Turkish writer. On the cover of the book The Times describes it as a 'jewelled, luxurious book' and Independent finds her a 'challenge' to 'Paulo Coelho's dominance'. There is no doubt the book is beautifully written: the proof I finished the book in three sittings with what not going around! And yes there is the ''religion of love philosophy'' which Coelho's books also echo. But some passages did make me question things.
I love the way she describes the episode of how Rumi and Shams met.
Shams meets him in the middle of a bazaar and catches hold of the bridle of his horse. Before anything he wants the respected scholar to dismount and speak as an equal. He puts forward a question 'who is greater the Prophet (P.B.U.H) or the Sufi Bistami?' and then says the Prophet (P.B.U.H) said 'Forgive me, God, I couldn't know thee as I should have, while Bistami pronounced, Glory be to me, I carry God inside my cloak?'
Rumi replies even though it seems Bistami's statement is bigger it is actually not. It is the other way around. He likens God's love to an endless ocean with each human bearing a cup to drink from it. Bistami's vessel was small and a sip of the ocean was enough to satiate him whereas the Prophet (P.B.U.H), the chosen one, had a bigger cup to fill. Elif refers to the Quran then 'Have we not opened up your heart?' Thus the Prophet's (P.B.U.H) cup was widened to a degree that it was 'thirst upon thirst for him'. Even though he (P.B.U.H) said 'We do not know You as we should.' Rumi finds that 'he (P.B.U.H) certainly knew Him as no other did. (The above para has been taken from Elif Shafaq's Forty Rules of Love)


There can be a thousand adjectives to describe the prose. Beautiful, lilting, lyrical, lucid, rapturous, crackling, powerful, effortlessly smooth and easy to read, magical, musical even but I would pick 'what a talented writer..truly God gifted.'
The question in my mind is about sharia. Although it is described as a burning candle by Shams, only to show the way to the destination, can it be abandoned? The journey is indeed more important and the goal the ultimate prize but what of this detail. It cannot be trivial because the Prophet (P.B.U.H) did not abandon it. It is the judgment of who is good and who is bad that can be abandoned. Who are we to judge? This right belongs to Allah alone.