The Forty Rules of Love

Heartbroken at the absence of his friend, Rumi reflects on his inability to focus on anything other than Shams. He thinks about how his friend helped tear down his reputation in order to build him into the man he is today—a burgeoning poet with a deeper understanding of spirituality. The chapter ends with Rumi pleading for Shams’s return. 

Ten months later, in the midst of a chess game in Damascus, Shams is approached by Sultan Walad. Shams and Sultan Walad talk about Sultan Walad’s delay in searching for him. Walad now tries to persuade Shams to come back to Konya. Shams admits that he badly misses Rumi but fears Baba Zaman’s warning that he would not be able to leave Konya twice. Finally, he agrees to spend one more night in Damascus before returning to Konya the next day. 

When Shams returns to Konya, Kimya is at first surprised that Rumi is not immediately overjoyed but then realizes the reason: Rumi is afraid that Shams will leave again. In order to quell the concerns of the citizens about Shams, Rumi thinks that marriage will help make him seem more palatable to the people. When Kimya hears this, she approaches Rumi and tells her she would like to marry Kimya; while Rumi seems pleased, Kerra is concerned about how Shams will transition into a domestic life after so many years of wandering. Kimya says that she will love Shams so much that he will change, but this thought is clouded with foreshadowing that suggests otherwise. 

Distracted and preparing for the wedding, Kerra absently molds dough into the shape of the Virgin Mary. Before she can hide it, Shams sees it and asks her if she misses Mary, telling her that it’s okay if she does because the rivers of religion all flow to the same sea. He then tells Kerra that she could name her daughter Mary; when Kerra asks if he really thinks she will have a daughter, Shams says yes. Kerra feels a new fondness for Shams because of this, even if she is still hesitant about the marriage. 

Ella spots Aziz immediately upon arriving at Aziz’s hotel in Boston. She realizes she is definitely attracted to him. After many cups of coffee, Aziz invites her to his hotel room and Ella accepts. Ella’s nerves appear as though they are going to get the better of her. Aziz moves his hands over her body, praying under his breath; this is very intimate and erotic for Ella and in the midst of it, Aziz admits that he already loves Ella. When Ella moves to kiss him, however, Aziz stops her and says that he does not want to do anything that she would regret. Ella then goes back to the family apartment in Boston and sleeps on the couch. 

After the wedding ceremony, Shams and Kimya retreat to consummate the marriage. Shams is attracted to Kimya and acknowledges that marrying him is a dream of hers. Right before the marriage can be consummated, however, Shams stands up and says that he cannot go through with the act. To make it look as though they had had sex and that Kimya is no longer a virgin, Shams cuts his hand and streaks blood on the sheets before leaving; as he leaves, he realizes that he is trapped because of his love for Rumi and will not leave completely. 

On the morning of the wedding, Aladdin sees the wedding preparations and his anger, hurt, and frustration reach a breaking point. In a conversation with Sultan Walad, Aladdin says that his father only gave Kimya’s hand in marriage to Shams as a way to keep Shams from leaving again. When Sultan Walad says that Kimya is in love with him, Aladdin leaves to spend the evening with his friend and skip the festivities. As he thinks about Kimya and Shams consummating the union, he decides that something has to be done. 

Seven months after her union to Shams, Kimya is still a virgin. While she thought at first she would be able to have a companionable relationship with Shams without having a romantic marriage, Kimya is reaching her breaking point. Although Desert Rose is a Sufi now and has vowed to give up any sexual thoughts, Kimya visits her and asks for help in seducing Shams. Desert Rose reluctantly agrees. 

Moved by Kimya’s tears and passionate appeal, Desert Rose sets out helping Kimya lean how to seduce Shams. Together they buy silk undergarments that accentuate her figure and Desert Rose teaches her how to take perfumed baths and paint her face and her nails. When Kimya is finally put together for her attempt to seduce her husband, Desert Rose remarks how beautiful she is but then has a sense of dread come over her. 

That night, Kimya makes her way to Shams’s room in her attempt to seduce him. In spite of kissing him and rubbing against him, Shams is not interested in Kimya and sends her away coldly. Kimya returns to her room and never leaves the room again, slipping into an illness that kills her ten days later. 

After a blissful week in Boston, spent flirting, visiting museums, and trying new coffee shops and restaurants, it’s time for Aziz to return to Amsterdam. With his suitcase between them, Ella tells Aziz that she had told David that she was leaving him and that she wants to go with Aziz to Amsterdam. Aziz’s answer shocks Ella—Aziz has skin cancer and he is dying; his doctors predict he only has sixteen months to live. While Ella tells Aziz to fight it, Aziz dismisses the idea and recounts how much he has loved falling in love with Ella but that he wants to die on his own terms in Konya. He leaves Ella with a choice: come to him to Konya or let him go. 

While half asleep at the tavern, Suleiman overhears men discussing a plot to kill Shams. When he finally awakes fully, Suleiman searches high and low for Shams, ultimately finding him and warning him not to return to Rumi’s. Instead of heeding his advice, Shams says that everything that happens is God’s will and returns to Rumi’s home. 

The killer and three accomplices arrive at Rumi’s house as they know that Shams goes outside every evening and they plan to kill him then. When Shams comes outside, he walks over to where the killer is hiding and seems at peace, essentially inviting him to kill him. The killer swings his sword at Shams and Shams dodges it before a mass of men—friends of the accomplices—swarm Shams. He manages to fight them off for a time before the killer buries his knife in Shams’s heart. The group then dumps Shams’s body into a well but there is no sound of it hitting the water. Later, Rumi comes outside and staggers over to the well, discovering that Shams is dead. 

The scene opens with Ella preparing yet another complicated meal for her family. After setting everything in place, Ella grabs her suitcase and recalls a quote from Aziz’s book: “It is never too late to ask yourself, ‘Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?’” (336).

Three weeks after Shams’s death, Aladdin approaches his father to talk about it, insisting that he had nothing to do with Shams’s murder. As Aladdin says this, Rumi interrupts and says that Aladdin has blood on his hem; it is only after Aladdin looks that he realizes the trap his father had laid for him. Aladdin was indeed in on the murder and helped hold Shams down in the end though it was Jackal Head who killed Shams in the end. In spite of Shams’s death, Aladdin realizes that there are traces of Shams everywhere and that Shams is still connected with his father. 

Sultan Walad reflects on the state of his father after Shams’s death. He notes how his father is joyless and gives away money, saying he is nothing. While Rumi writes poetry, it seems more out of necessity than any genuine joy. 

Rumi thinks about his friend Shams and the legacy that unfolded after his death. He sees Shams in every part of the world, from raindrops to mountain tops, and dedicates his life to creating poetry that seems to come to him without any effort. The poems are copied by Saladin, whose sister Sultan Walad marries, and are distributed by Husam the Student, who now proclaims himself a follower of Shams. Rumi recounts the battles that were lost and won in the sixteen years after Shams’s death, along with the fall of Baghdad. 

After a year of traveling together, Aziz and Ella end up in Konya. One afternoon, Aziz falls very ill and is rushed to a hospital. Ella sits vigil. As the morning prayers ring through the hospital, Ella and Aziz make small talk before he falls back asleep and Ella goes outside to make a wish at a fountain. By the time she goes back inside, Aziz is dead. His funeral is attended by friends from all over the world. Without a job or money and with divorce proceedings underway, Ella thinks about her next steps before calling her daughter and telling her that she is going to move to Amsterdam and take life one day at a time.