How do I begin?
It's going to be quite a long story to tell. I wasn't much exposed to Sufism... until I found a video of Sami Yusuf the greatest Iranian Muslim singer singing Nasimi. Beautifully composed and sang by Sami Yusuf. No word could describe how wonderful the song is.
Nasimi (Imadaddin Nasimi) was a mystical poet in the late 14th century. The lyrics of the song was actually taken from the greatest poetry that he composed in Azerbaijani. It is actually inspiring to actually learn that we can read thousands or even millions of poetries in different languages - without any boundaries. We could understand the emotion beneath the words that were carefully written by the poet. The language itself unites us. We just need to look beneath the paper, the word, the ink, to understand its depth and breadth. Once we fully understood it, believe me, you'll fall in love with how romantic poetry is.
Nasimi praised truthfulness in man and the beauty of the human heart. To speak about the essence of God hidden in us, human and everything. Go and check Sami Yusuf - Nasimi on Youtube. Put on headphone, full volume, and let the lyrics flood into your vein and your heart. Open your heart to accept the majestic and powerful performance about the essence of God. It is intensely beautiful.
Back to our main story, The Forty Rules of Love.
So what Nasimi had to do with the book? Let me explain. As I told earlier, it's going to be a long story, so bear with me. Nasimi is the leading representatives of Hurufism - a doctrine in Sufi, based on the mysticism of letters. The basic Hurufism conception is that man is the incarnation of God (that gives you the general understanding of the lyric).
It was so interesting to explore so I dig about Sufism and everything and cliche as it may sound, it linked me to Rumi. Of course, the greatest Persian poet which his works have been widely translated into many languages. I haven't got the chance to read Rumi greatest works (I'm waiting for Book Depository to mail my books). But I know we need to start somewhere so I bought The Forty Rules of Loves. Light reading about the friendship between Rumi and his dearest companion, Shams Tabrizi.
I love how Shams moulded Rumi to understand Sufism. But I think to describe his action as "moulded" is definitely wrong because he didn't mould him. Rumi was a maulana, full of knowledge. But Shams presence more like "passing valuable knowledge" to him. He was a "sun," shining the Light of Sun as a guide for the right path in Rumi's heart. Without the sun, plants cannot process food, without the sun, humans can't see and that's how important Shams was in Rumi's life.
I love how Elif Shafak started the story. I love what she did with the storyline, I love how she used Ella and Aziz to tell readers about Rumi and Shams Tabrizi. And I could relate to Ella's character dearly. Her curiosity about the writer made her took the chance to dig in about Aziz and to gather all the strengths to email him. A simple email led to a romantic relationship. But what I can see is it was more than than. It helped Ella to rethink her life. It made Aziz open up about his past to a stranger, to share memories - it was beautifully written.
It's true that a single flick could change our life upside down. Like how the death of Aziz's wife led him to be a drug addict and to not believe in life anymore. But, a stranger who just passed by in his life could lead him to learn about Sufism. And with that, he gathered back his strengths and to have a different perspective on life. For Ella, Aziz's incredible journey pushed her to be a new person.
I found Aziz in my life. I always feel timid when I'm around him. He has a broad knowledge of many things. All the time, I remain silent because he's so "mighty" and I just want to let his thoughts flow smoothly without any interruption. He could talk about a particular topic for days and it makes me want to know more about him. Even a simple question of "what's your cup of tea?" could connote different answer. Just like Aziz in the fiction book, it doesn't mean we have to be in a "relationship". We just value the presence of each other and we both understand our take towards life and union or just call it marriage.
My dear friends, if you are still searching for your soulmate take my advice: Never settle for less. Find someone who speaks your language. If he's smarter than you, be sure that you both speak the same language. If not, you'll feel inferior and even with the presence of your soulmate, you still feel incomplete.
Find someone who views life the same as you. Someone who can appreciate your belief and thinking. And be sure to ask if he believes in the vaccine (LOL).
Love always with all my heart,
Ella
