There is a strong correlation between the ability to write and the ability to read. Reading as well as writing well involves decoding a text, understanding vocabulary, and using background knowledge to deduce meaning. Reading affects writing and writing affects reading (Mason, 2017). According to research, people who read extensively tend to become writers. Reading different books aids individuals study systems and languages that they can use in writing. Besides, reading gives an individual a previous knowledge that can be used in writing. Writing involves transferring information in print hence one must have an idea to share before writing it (Mason, 2017). Reading therefore plays an essential purpose in writing. “Forty Rules of Love" by Elif Shafak explains more on why skilled writers are also proficient readers and need to read more often and carefully.
"The Forty Rules of love" involve two different stories that reflect each other across two very diverse cultures. The first story is that of Ella, forty-year-old unhappy housewife with an unfaithful husband and three children. Ella's life begins to dramatically change when she decides to take a job as a reader for a literary firm. The first assignment Ella is given is a novel intriguingly titled “Sweet Blasphemy," which is about a poet and his beloved Sufi teacher, Shams, in the thirteenth century (Adil, 2010). The author of the book, Aziz Azahara is an unpopular first-time novel writer who stays in Turkey. Ella is initially unwilling to take a novel about a place and time that is so diverse from her own but later finds both the story and its author so captivating that she starts an email-flirtation. While reading the novel, Ella questions the many ways she has settled for conventional life with no passion and real love. The assignment was a turning point for Ella and gave her life a new direction.
In the middle of the novel that Ella is reading, there is a remarkable and mythical provocateur that tends to challenge wisdom and social as well as religious bias whenever he experiences it (Adil, A. 2010). He is looking for the spiritual company that he is meant to teach. The purpose of his soul is to change his student, Rumi - a lovable but rather self-satisfied and mystical preacher-into a great global poet. Rumi is willing to be transformed but his family and relatives sincerely reject Sham for going against their settled way of life Rumi are admired and respected in his community, and Sham must, therefore, take him above his respectable lifestyle, beyond the mere satisfactions of the ego.
Basically, both Rumi and Ella, through their relations with Shams and Aziz, are pushed to question and later abandon the apparent security and safety of their lives for the heartbreak of love, uncertainty as well as ecstasy (Anjum & Ramzan, 2014). Both Shams and Aziz cannot offer any promise of lasting joy, but can only provide a taste of mythical union, divine love, and deep peace that comes about when the false self, established to meet the society’s needs for respectability, is left and the true self-arises.
Shams conveys the forty rules of love along the way, an important Sufi widow that Shams does not only preach about but also personifies. He regularly disregards social and religious protocols endangering his life increasing the anger of the literal-minded and self -righteous moralists who are around him (Adil, 2010). He encourages Rumi to become the poet that he was supposed to be, one of the globe’s most passionate and heartfelt voices of wisdom. Similarly, Ella is inspired by the story of Rumi and Shams to leave a marriage that has emotionally and spiritually drained her.
.
Although "the sweet blasphemy is captivating, the narrative of Ella tends to add some shortcomings to the novel. The writer narrates the sweet blasphemy in different ways from many perspectives ranging from Sham’s perspective, sometimes a beggar, sometimes Rumi or Rumi’s family (Anjum & Ramzan, 2014). This shows the pictures of the actual happenings in the novel, the love Rumi has for Sham’s and the hatred the community people and Rumi’s family had towards Shams. The narrative of Ella, however, lacks the many perspectives as it is just from the perspective of Ella. If the story would have been from the Aziz or Ella’s children point of view then the story would have been more transparent to the reader. Reading the story of Shams wakens the urge of an agnostic individual to find the god in the most unlikely places. The forty rules of love having been narrated by Shams from period to period tend to change one’s view on life on relations with God. In contrast, the novel tends to intensify a person’s hatred towards religious hypocrites who are connected with God in any way or have love in their hearts (Adil, 2010). It is, however, good to know that Rumi became a good poet with the person behind it being Shams.
An individual reading this book, improves his or her writing skills since the book, “Forty Rules of love” enthusiastically occupies the reader’s attention with exciting characters of varied ideologies (Anjum & Ramzan, 2014). Shams tell some stories to strengthen his argument give convincing points to other characters in the book. Besides, the book strongly emphasizes the importance of breaking hatred boundaries and replacing it with love. The author creates interest in every part of the book for the readers (Adil, 2010). The book is an excellent example of storytelling an essential component of writing and is not just the best piece of fiction, but its rules are also guidelines for a harmonious lifestyle, hatred for no one and love for everybody.
Ella through reading transforms from an unhappy, loveless wife who has even lost belief in love to a woman with an awakened power of love. She realizes a change of love that came back (Anjum & Ramzan, 2014). To Ella, everything happens at the right time, and it seems it was the right time for her to read the novel "Sweet Blasphemy." Ella is fascinated to learn the forty rules of love conveyed by Shams and the hatred she had before is driven away after she completed reading the book. Ella is transformed to the point that she even feels guilty for not having listened to her daughter who had earlier confided in her (Adil, 2010). After understanding the book, she realizes her mistakes and apologizes to her daughter.
The author of the novel Eli Shafak is also a skilled writer who developed his writing skills from extensive and continuous reading. The fact that the author is a public speaker and an essayist also improves his writing skills.
References
Adil, A. (2010). The Forty Rules of Love, By Elif Shafak [Book Review]. The Independent.
Anjum, F., & Ramzan, M. (2014). The Sufi Phenomenon: The Case of ElifShafak’ s The Forty Rules of Love. Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research.
Mason, J. M. (2017). Reading stories to preliterate children: A proposed connection to reading. In Reading acquisition (pp. 215-241). Routledge.
Shafak, E. (2011). The forty rules of love. Penguin.