The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran Page 0,3
walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
This organic vision characterises the work where ‘your joy is your sorrow unmasked’, and ‘life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one’. Gibran’s statements are a re-interpretation rather than a denial. They serve to underline the limitations of conventional Christian views, and look forward to his next major work in English, Jesus Son of Man, which continues to challenge orthodox doctrine.
Compassion is the presiding emotion in The Prophet, which surely owes its wide appeal to the author’s pacific humanitarianism. This presents some contrast to the overt didacticism and critical tone of Gibran’s earlier Arabic works, and even to the irony of The Madman. Gibran’s writings ( The Forerunner and various Arabic works) during the period when he was revising The Prophet all contain some trenchant criticisms, but tend to be more gentle, conveying a positive affirmation of the reality of inner illumination, and of its accessibility to all men. In The Prophet, Almustafa’s only complaint as he talks of prayer is tinged with regret so that any implicit rebuke is softened:
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.
As Almustafa finally takes his leave of the people, his last words assert Gibran’s firm belief in reincarnation:
A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.
This seems to imply a deeper symbolic level in the poem, where ‘the isle of his birth’ to which Almustafa is returning is a pre-natal condition, Orphalese is the earth itself, and Almustafa’s residence there represents the necessary separation of the individual spirit from God.
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 relation to God, never materialised.
Kahlil Gibran’s life has been recorded by many doting friends, and his work has claimed critical attention from a variety of scholars, but The Prophet speaks for itself. It is infinitely accessible, can be appreciated on various levels and is open to individual interpretation. After The Prophet, Gibran published five more works in English and many poems and articles in Arabic before his untimely death in 1931. In general there has been little adverse criticism of his work, though Naimy cites critics who accuse him of opting out by addressing only spiritual problems. [17] Ultimately this has to be seen as his strength, for such questions are ever relevant, and The Prophet remains an enduring touchstone of spiritual writing offering solace to all. Mikhail Naimy saw Gibran, if not as a prophet, certainly as heaven-sent:
Thus the all-seeing eye perceived our spiritual drought and sent us this rain-bearing cloud to drizzle some relief to our parching souls. [18]
Arabic names are always significant and, as Barbara Young observes, the author of The Prophet seems to have been peculiarly aptly named. ‘Kahlil’ [19] means ‘the chosen one, the beloved friend’ and ‘Gibran’ means ‘the healer or comforter of souls’.
Christine Baker
Notes to the Introduction
1. See Suheil Bushrui, Kahlil Gibran of Lebanon: A re-evaluation of the life and works of the author of The Prophet, Gerrard’s Cross, 1987.
2. Rodin apparently recommended the works of William Blake to Gibran.
3. See Blue Flame: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran to May Ziadah, trans. and ed. Suheil B. Bushrui and Salma H. al Kusbari, Burnt Mill, Longman, 1983.
4. Published in Beloved Prophet : The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell and Her Private Journal, ed. and arranged by Virginia Hilu, New York, AAK, 1972.
5. Recorded in Mary Haskell’s journal (Hilu, op. cit.).
6. Barbara Young took over from Mary Haskell as Gibran’s amanuensis. See Barbara Young, This Man from