Elif Shafak

It’s easy to love a perfect God, unblemished and infallible that He is. What is far more difficult is to love fellow human beings with all their imperfections and defects. Remember, one can only know what one is capable of loving. There is no wisdom without love. Unless we learn to love God’s creation, we can neither truly love nor truly know God.

Not so in Istanbul though. Rain, for us, isn't necessarily about getting wet. It's not about getting dirty even. If anything, it's about getting angry. It's mud and chaos and rage, as if we didn't have enough of each already. And struggle. It's always about struggle.

It angers us all when the sky opens and spits on our heads.

till waters—a predictable sequence of habits, needs, and preferences.

ore important things than passion and love in a marriage, such as understanding, affection, compassion, and that most godlike act a person could perform, forgiveness.

g, busy house with children, elegant furniture, and the wafting scent of homemade pies

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

Isn’t connecting people to distant lands and cultures one of the strengths of good literature?”

ecret of the Qur’an lies in the verse Al-Fatiha,
And the secret of Al-Fatiha lies in Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
And the quintessence of Bismillah is the letter ba,
And there is a dot below that letter.…
The dot underneath the B embodies the entire universe.…

The Mathnawi starts with B,

secret of the Qur’an lies in the verse Al-Fatiha,
And the secret of Al-Fatiha lies in Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
And the quintessence of Bismillah is the letter ba,
And there is a dot below that letter.…
The dot underneath the B embodies the entire universe.…

The Mathnawi starts with B,