When was sweet blasphemy written

Her engaging vision of a gentle non-judgmental Sufi path to Islam that rejects religious fundamentalism and is accessible to all, from medieval drunks and whores to 21st-century Scottish drifters and American housewives, has made the novel a Turkish bestseller. Challenging truisms of the fundamentalist Islamic orient and the consumerist Judeo-Christian occident, the novel proposes Sufism as a quest for spirituality which can fill the void at the heart of both.

Shafak is a mercurial and often controversial writer, but should she choose to continue in this spiritual vein, I have no doubt she will challenge Paulo Coelho's dominance. With its timely, thought-provoking, feel-good message, The Forty Rules of Love deserves to be a global publishing phenomenon. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later?

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Already subscribed? In what ways does Ella change over the course of the novel? In what ways does Rumi change? Does Ella make the right decision in choosing love and the present moment over security and the future? What would Shams think of her choice? In what ways are Sweet Blasphemy and The Forty Rules of Love both about the need to break free from conventions and the fear of the opinion of others, the desire for safety, respectability, and security?

What instances of defying convention stand out in the novel? What is the price to be paid for going against prevailing opinion? What is Shafak saying about the personal and imaginative potential of fiction? Have you had similarly transformative experiences from reading novels? What struggles do women face in the Islamic world of Sweet Blasphemy? In what ways do social conventions and religious stricture inhibit the lives of Kerra, Kimya, and Desert Rose the Harlot?

What does the novel as whole say about love? Does it espouse a consistent philosophy of the nature, purpose, and value of love? Which of the forty rules speak to you most directly? Related Books and Guides. Hell of a Book. The Invisible Husband of Frick Island.

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Hanna Halperin. Sunflower Sisters. Martha Hall Kelly. I really liked the novel and most of it is because of Shams of Tabriz, from his rules of love to his strong personality to his love and belief on god everything was mesmerizing.

As an agnostic, reading about Shams really awakened the urge to find the GOD in the most unlikely places. The forty rules of love which is narrated by shams from time to time really maybe just for a while changed my perspective on life and on relations and obviously on GOD. On the other hand it intensified my hatred towards the hypocrite religious people who don't have anything to do with God or the love we bear in our hearts.

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