The Prophet
by Kahlil Gibran
introduction by Christine Baker
(London: Wordsworth Classics, 1996)
His writing is steeped in Lebanese Christian mythology blended with the Sufi tradition of Lebanese Muslims, and imbued with ta broad, oriental wisdom that derives from richly mixed influences.
Page v.
Gibran saw society as a corrupting force that encourages the individual to forsake personal conscience for purposes of collective good.
Page vi.
He modelled his style on the biblical language of the King James I Authorized Version.
Page vi-vii.
His philosophy, imagery and expression remain essentially Arab.
Page vii.
The Prophet is an eclectic spiritual guide that has something for everyone. As he is about to leave the city of Orphalese where he has been for twelve years the stranger Almustafa is surrounded by the people and asked for advice. he delivers brief sermons on twenty-six subjects in language that is striking for its simplicity and its majesty, for its brilliant imagery and for its graceful rhythm. His words, redolent with love and understanding, call for unity and affirm Gibran’s certainty of the correlated nature of all existence, and of re-incarnation.
Page viii.
The principal of universal love pervades The Prophet.
Page xi.
Gibran’s preoccupation with sorrow and pain as inseparable form the joy of love is central to The Prophet.
Page xi.
Repetition throughout the book of biblical forms such as the frequent opening of sentences with ‘And’, or the use of expressions such as ‘and verily’ or ‘I say unto you’ evoke the Gospels and Christian teaching.
Page xi.
Though Almustafa is evidently a Christ-figure, his words also echo those of the prophet Mohammed, and his philosophy is truly eclectic.
Page xii.
Compassion is the presiding emotion in The Prophet.
Page xii.
Two sequels to The Prophet were intended. The Garden of the Prophet, which addresses man’s relation to nature was completed by Barbara Young and published posthumously, but The Death of the Prophet, concerning man’s relating to God, never materialized.
Page xiii.
When he was eleven all his family except his father emigrated to America and settled among a community of expatriate Lebanese in Boston’s Chinatown.
Page xv.
His careers as both painter and writer were flourishing but his health was failing and he began to drink heavily to counteract cardiac pains.
Page xvi.
In 1923 his masterpiece, The Prophet, was published. It was an instant success and sales have never flagged.
Page xvi.
Who can depart form his pain and his aloneness without regret?
Page 1.
A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I ay dispense with confidence?
Page 3.
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Page 4.
When love beckons to you, follow him.
Page 5.
Even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Page 5.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
Page 6.
When you love you should not say, ‘God is in my heart,’ but rather, ‘I am in the heart of God.’
Page 6.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Page 7.
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughter s of Life’s longing for itself.
Page 8.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
Page 8.
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Page 9.
There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
Page 9.
It is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
Page 10.
Since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
Page 11.
To be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons.
Page 13.
When you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born. Page 13.
Work is love made visible.
Page 14.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
Page 17.
Your house is your larger body.
Page 18.
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And through you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.
Page 20.
It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.
Page 21.
You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;
For they stand together before the face of the sun.
Page 24.
You can only be free … when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.
Page 28.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Page 32.
Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’
Page 33.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of sae, but he cannot give you his understanding.
Page 34.
Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirt.
Page 35.
In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Page 36.
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.
Page 37.
Yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
Page 38.
What is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Page 39.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
Page 39.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Page 39.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech.
Page 39.
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good.
Page 40.
You pray in your distress and in your need: would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Page 41.
Your body is the harp of your soul,
And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.
Page 44.
The giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.
Page 45.
Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.
Page 48.
Life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
Page 50.
What is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
Page 50.
We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.
Page 52.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by our failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.
Page 54.
How can one be indeed near unless he be far?
Page 56.
Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end.
Page 57.
That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined.
Page 57.
The veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it.
Page 58.
A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body.
A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.
Page 59.
‘A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.’
Page 60.