The Prophet by Khalil Gibran is a short but invaluable book of philosophy and encouragement. It is the story of The Prophet who gives his last lectures to the habitants of the seaside town of Orphalese before leaving in a boat to shores unknown. It is filled with wisdom. Despite the religious implication of the title, the philosophy here is more that of Spinoza.
"You will be free not when your days are without worry and your nights are without desire of pain. You will be free when your life is surrounded by these things and you raise yourself above them, nude and with constraint." (p.63)
"Because it is the morning dew of little things in which the heart finds its morning and refreshes itself." (p.76)
"And for the two, bee and flower, to give and to receive, the pleasure is a need and a boundless joy." (p.90)
The book is filled with hundreds of beautiful quotes such as these which are useful to nourish the soul beset by the crises that we are living through at any moment in our lives. It was given to me by a friend I knew here in Paris but left to Montreal years ago, and like the Prophet, she left me these words for which I eternally grateful. Merci Geneviève, wherever you are on earth or otherwise.

I feel like a real spoil sport, but The Prophet strikes me as pretentious and overwrought. Kahlil Gibran is hoping to produce a work of wisdom for the ages (apparently many accept it as such), but so much is either obvious, wrong, meaningless, or inconsequential. Gibran's maxims, delivered through the mouth of "Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved" are reminiscent of (and likely emulating) Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. At times he reaches that level, and as a guidebook it has more concentrated wisdom than the Bible... but that is not a high bar. The best I can say about The Prophet is that it is harmless and occasionally beautiful.

The plot is a simple, clever one: a prophet has been waiting for years for a ship to come and bear him home. When it finally arrives, he heads toward the port, only to be surrounded by the people of Orphalese who beseech him for wisdom as he walks to the shore. Each chapter is scripturally structured, consisting of a broad question asked by some cipher of a townsperson and Almustafa's pontification in response. "Then a mason came forth and said, Speak to us of Houses. And he answered and said..."

Sometimes the advice is beautiful. When speaking of marriage, the prophet says, "But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you." (There are truckloads of metaphors that rely on dancing, winds, wings, and music.) That would be fine, but then he restates the same point at least three times. "Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf." Yeah, we get it.

Other passages are simply nonsense, or nothing but pretty words that do not resolve into anything meaningful. I'm scanning the book looking for a good example. Here we go: "You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one." The owl analogy (anowlogy?) says the opposite of what he's positing. If you're supposed to seek the secret of death in the heart of life, then the owl should learn the secret of day by examining the night, yes? Life and death are one, as the river and sea are one? How so? How is that useful? It is purposely vague, which is the secret of effective scripture, but frustrating to my ears. It is a very short book, but I had to reach each passage multiple times to determine whether I could make any sense of the prophet's tortured phrases. He cops to this toward the end: "If these be vague words, then seek not to clear them. Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end, And I fain would have you remember me as a beginning. Life, and all that lives, is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal. And who knows but a crystal is mist in decay?"

What? No it isn't.

The Prophet is a cacophony of mixed metaphors and grandiose windbaggery. Many sentences are inverted, or expectations challenged, so the wisdom can be superficially presented as sage correction. "When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, 'I am in the heart of God.'" WHOA. You said one thing, and then turned it around!

Anyway, you get the idea. There are lovely pieces of observation, but they are buried deep as jewels within a mountain shrouded by the toxic mists of confusion and error. See? I can make bad metaphors, too. The edition I read was accompanied by Gibran's illustrations, which remind me of William Blake's: mostly studies of bodies stacked next to each other in odd poses that likely have deep meaning for Gibran. If you want a fun way to experience this, you can see Roger Allers' 2014 animated rendition with Liam Neeson speaking as the prophet.

Come ogni altro artista, nessuno scrittore possiede la chiave delle verità assolute sulla vita e sul suo più profondo significato. Eppure, forse proprio la sua capacità di penetrare gli intimi segreti del mondo a volte gli concede di scorgere piccoli frammenti di verità. Credo Gibran vantasse un simile dono. In queste pagine bellissime e toccanti, apre spiragli verso orizzonti lontani, suscita dilemmi tanti quanto fornisce risposte, concede una delle chiavi possibili per schiudere il nostro cuore con grande sincerità e lasciarci tentare, infine, di comprender noi stessi e la strada che siamo destinati a percorrere.

ولا تقل في ذاتك : قد وجدت الحق
بل قل بالأحرى : قد وجدت حقا

♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

الحب لا يعطي إلا من نفسه، ولا يأخذ إلا من نفسه
والحب لا يملك، ولا يطيق أن يكون مملوكاً
وحسب الحب أنه حب


♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

إذا الحب أوما إليكم فاتبعوه
حتى وان كانت مسالكه وعرة وكثيرة المزالق
وإذا الحب لفكم بجناحيه فاطمئنوا اليه
حتى وإن جرحتكم النصال المخبوءه تحت قوادمه
وإذا الحب خاطبكم فصدقوه
حتى وان عبث صوته باحلامكم كما تعبث ريح الشمال بازهار الحديقة


♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

إذا أحب أحدكم فلا يقولن
إن الله في قلبي
وليقل بالأحرى
إنني في قلب الله
ولا يخطرن لكم ببال أن في مستطاعكم توجيه الحب
بل إن الحب إذا وجدكم مستحق��ن هو الذي يوجهكم

♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

ربنا وإلهنا
إننا لا نستطيع أن نلتمس منك حاجة
لأنك تعرف حاجتنا قبل أن تولد في أعماقنا
أنت حاجتنا
وكلما زدتنا من ذاتك زدتنا من كل شئ

♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

وإن يكن مبتغاكم أن تنزلوا طاغية عن عرشه
فاعملوا أولاً على تحطيم ذلك العرش الذي أقمتموه له في قلوبكم
إذ كيف لطاغية أن يحكم شعباً حراً وأبياً
ما لم يكن في حرية ذلك الشعب شيء من الاستبداد
وفي إبائه شيء من الذل؟


♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

نحن نتكلم عندما توصد أمامنا أبواب السلام عن افكارنا
وعندما نعجز عن الوصول لحالة السكون في وحدة قلوبنا
نتحول لنستولي على شفاهنا
فالصوت يلهينا ويسلينا
وفي الكثير من كلامنا يكاد فكرنا ينفجر من الألم والكآبة
لأن الفكر طائر من طيور الفضاء ن يمكنه ان يبسط جناحيه في قفص الألفاظ
ولكنه لا يستطيع أن يطير


♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

أولادكم ليسوا لكم
أولادكم أبناء الحياة المشتاقة إلى نفسها
بكم يأتون إلى العالم
ولكن ليس منكم
ومع أنهم يعيشون معكم
فهم ليسوا ملكاً لكم
أنتم تستطيعون أن تمنحوهم محبتكم
ولكنكم لا تقدرون أن تغرسوا فيهم بذور أفكاركم
لأن لهم أفكارأً خاصةً بهم
وفي طاقتكم أن تصنعوا المساكم لأجسادكم
ولكن نفوسهم لا تقطن في مساكنكم
فهي تقطن في مسكن الغد
الذي لا تستطيعون أن تزوروه حتى ولا في أحلامكم
وإن لكم أن تجاهدوا لكي تصيروا مثلهم
ولكنكم عبثاً تحاولون أن تجعلوهم مثلكم
لأن الحياة لا ترجع إلى الوراء
ولا تلذ لها الإقامة في منزل الأمس
أنتم الأقواس وأولادكم سهام حية قد رمت بها الحياة عن أقواسكم

فإن رامي السهام ينظر العلامة المنصوبة على طريق اللانهاية
فيلويكم بقدرته لكي تكون سهامه سريعة بعيدة المدى
لذلك
فليكن التواؤكم بين يدي رامي السهام الحكيم لأجل المسرة والغبطة
لأنه كما يحب السهم الذي يطير من قوسه
هكذا يحب القوس الذي يثبت بين يديه


♥،♥،♥،♥،♥،♥

كلٌمـا عمٌق الحزنٌ حفرَةً في كينونتك،،ازدادت قُدرتك على احتواء فَرح أكثر

هناك رسائل إنسانية سامية , رسائل خطّها بشر من نوع خاص , رسائل قد تصل لدرجة ما من القداسة , من حيث سمو مكانتها وعلوها .

فقد ناطحت السحاب من حيث عظمة الإبداع , ولا يمكنك عندما تفرغ من قرائتها إلا الاستسلام لبالغ أثرها من براعة لفظ و روعة وصف و دقة تعبير .

نواجه هنا نص في غاية الجمال , نص لخّص فيها إنسان معاناته و تجربته الإنسانية العظيمة بطريقة أقل ما يوصف بها هي العظمة.

أيها السادة : ببساطة مطلقة , هناك بعض النصوص لابد لك من قرائتها قبل أن تموت , ضع ذلك النص على رأس هذه القائمة.

I don't know if I can write this review. I really don't. It makes me feel extremely vulnerable, to contemplate putting so much of my heart out on view for people on the internet to see. I also don't know if I have the words.

Reading this book was both devastating and awe-inspiring. I was moved beyond words, particularly when I started reading it, started to let the words wash over me, when I realized how familiar they were, not the words, but the meanings behind them. It felt like something I'd been swimming in my whole life and never realized it.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your ‎temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one ‎religion, and it is the spirit

*

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a ‎truth.' Say not, ' I have found the path of the soul.' Say ‎rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.' For the ‎soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, ‎neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a ‎lotus of countless petals

*

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and ‎daughters of Life's longing for itself

*

Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds ‎of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but ‎make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea ‎between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but ‎drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but ‎eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be ‎joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings ‎of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. ‎Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only ‎the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand ‎together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the ‎temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow ‎not in each other's shadow‏.‏

*

When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are ‎hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, ‎Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound ‎you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his ‎voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste ‎the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify ‎you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. ‎Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your ‎tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he ‎descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to ‎the earth‏.‏

*

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and ‎love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your ‎nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the ‎seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your ‎laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives ‎naught but itself and takes naught but from itself‏.‏

*

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is ‎sufficient unto love. And think not you can direct the course ‎of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has ‎no other desire but to fulfil itself‏.‏

*

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be ‎your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings ‎its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much ‎tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of ‎love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully

*

The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And ‎knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow ‎is today's dream

*

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

*

You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak ‎as your weakest link‏.‏
This is but half the truth‏.‏
You are also as strong as your strongest link‏.‏
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the ‎power of the ocean
by the frailty of its foam‏.‏
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the ‎seasons for their inconstancy

*

‏‏For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and ‎thirst‏?‏

*

‏Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails ‎of your seafaring soul‏.‏
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but ‎toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas‏.‏
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, ‎unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction‏.‏
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of ‎passion, that it may sing‏;‏
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion ‎may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the ‎phoenix rise above its own ashes‏‏

*

‏You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a ‎care, nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather ‎when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above ‎them naked and unbound

Al ser un ignorante ya que no gusto de los libros de autoayuda, no sabría especificar si este libro entre en esa asignatura, pero a mi parecer este libro se inclina más al lado filosófico, ya que sus enseñanzas y reflexiones aquí vistas me recuerdan mucho a análisis filosóficos pero sin llegar a ser tan profundos, ya que raya en esa sencillez de los libros de autoayuda y los temas que aquí se tratan son muy comunes en este tipo de libros.

Aun así sin saber dónde clasificarlo he de decir que me gustó mucho y no solo por su forma en que está escrito, que es muy hermoso y poético, sino que transmite ideas muy poderosas y que te hacen cambiar la perspectiva de tu entorno.

Solo podría decir que para los filósofos este libro puede ser una burla (y estoy de acuerdo) pero igual creo que es un libro que está muy por encima de los libros de autoayuda y a pesar de que no todos los temas que aquí se tocaron me gustaron, he de decir que varios de ellos si me llegaron muy profundo en mi ser y me están dando vueltas en la cabeza replanteándome pensamientos y actitudes hacia mi vida y mi entorno, es por eso que este libro será ese al que recurra continuamente para volver a analizar sus enseñanzas, las que probablemente interprete de diferente manera dependiendo mi situación personal que atraviese.

Not much of a fan. But definitely changed my perspective towards life.

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Excellent and recommend all take the time to read a few pages

"Bu hep böyledir, sevgi kendi derinliğini bilmez ayrılık vakti gelip çatana kadar."

ثم قال له عالم: هات حدثنا عن الكلام.
فأجاب وقال:
إنكم تتكلمون عندما توصد دونكم أبواب السلام مع أفكاركم.
وعندما تعجزون عن السكنى في وحدة قلوبكم، تقطنون في شفاهكم والصوت يلهبكم ويسليكم.
وفي الكثير من كلامكم يكاد فكركم يقضي ألماً وكآبة؛
لأن الفكر طائر من طيور الفضاء، يبسط جناحيه في قفص الألفاظ ولكنه لا يستطيع أن يحلق طائراً.
إن بينكم قوماً يقصدون الثرثار المهذار ضجراً من الوحدة والانفراد لأن سكينة الوحدة تبسط أمام عيونهم صورة واضحة لذواتهم العارية، يرتعدون لدى رؤيتها فيهربون منها.
ومنكم الذين يتكلمون، ولكنهم عن غير معرفة، وبدون سابق قصد، يظهرون حقيقة لا يدركونها هم أنفسهم.
ومنكم الذين أودع الحق قلوبهم، ولكنهم لا يأبون أن يلبسوه حلة اللفظ، وفي أحضان هؤلاء تقطن الروح في هدوء وسكون.
٧ يناير ٢٠٢٣