The Forty Rules Of Love.

One afternoon, Rafiq’s family was hosting guests in the garden. I sat with them for a while, but I got tired and came back inside. I went to the TV room and sat down on the couch. That’s when I noticed a book placed right next to me.

It was “The Forty Rules of Love” by Elif Shafak.

The title caught my attention. The cover was a cute drawing of a guy and a girl facing one another.. and the background- I could tell that they were in an Islamic country. I picked the book up and flipped it over to read the summary.

And I froze.

The book was about a woman who left her marriage after a spiritual awakening and travelled across the world where she ended up falling in love with another man.

Sound familiar?

I just couldn't believe it.. I read a couple of pages and it sounded so similar to my story. It was almost eerie.

The book belonged to Rafiq's grandfather. He must have bought it sometime in the past and just happened to leave it in the TV room that day. I don't know how long ago he even purchased that book or why he purchased it.

Once again- this showed me Allah's power. How Allah's planning goes so far back.. beyond our imagination. To think that Allah put it in Rafiq's grandfather's heart to purchase the book so long ago.. That book was meant to be in their house and it sat quietly in their home on the other side of the world

It was written in my qadr to come across that book. I could not wrap my head around how Allah had something like that planned from so long ago.. how Allah can bring threads from so many different directions and tie them together into a singular moment.

It's amazing.

There was one paragraph from the book that stood out to me. It was so much like my story.

Elif Shafak wrote in 'The Forty Rules of Love'

"All of which is why no one, including Ella, could explain what was going on when she filed for divorce in the fall of 2008 after twenty years of marriage.

But there was a reason: love.

The did not live in the same city. Not even on the same continent. The two of them were not only miles apart but also as different as day and night. Their lifestyles were so dissimilar that it seemed impossible for them to bear each other's presence, never mind fall in love. But it happened. And it happened fast, so fast in fact that Ella had not ime to realize what was happening and to be on guard, if one could ever be on guard against love.

Love came to Ella as suddently and brusquely as if a stone had been hurled from out of nowhere into the tranquil pond of her life."