LOVE, MYSTICISM AND SPIRITUALITY: TRANSFORMATION IN ELIF SHAFAK’S THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE

Abstract

The study examines how Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love (2009) represents love as a vehicle for mystical knowledge and spiritual transformation. Focusing on the twin narratives; the thirteenth-century story of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz and the contemporary plot of Ella Rubinstein, the study argues that Shafak uses Sufi concepts (especially the rules attributed to Shams) to stage inner metamorphosis, ethical reorientation, and a reimagining of selfhood that crosses cultural and temporal boundaries. Using qualitative textual analysis and thematic coding, the paper traces recurrent motifs (love as gnosis/ishq, rupture and fellowship, annihilation/baqa, pilgrimage and interior journey) and shows how Shafak negotiates theological, psychological, and feminist concerns. The findings indicate that transformation in the novel is layered: personal (Ella’s awakening), relational (Rumi–Shams), and communal (the diffusion of Sufi ethics). The study situates Shafak’s novel in recent work on contemporary Sufism in fiction and argues that the novel functions both as literary re-telling and as accessible pedagogy of mysticism for global readers.