When Kahlil Gibran published his magnum opus, The Prophet, over ninety years ago, he wouldn’t have, perforce, realised the true, perennial import of his work: a structure with a timeless appeal. All the same, his insuperable work was a roseate contribution to literature — one that has in it just about every ingredient a book of substance, albeit abstract, would need to inspire, and also synthesise, every known tradition of the past with the avant-garde. You get the point, although it’s another thing that a handful of Gibran critics, and others, don’t really agree with the invocation of Gibran’s genius. And, they may have good reasons to believe in their analysis — because, Gibran, for all practical purposes, was too human with his warts and moles? Perhaps.
The Prophet, however, appeals to everyone, whatever one’s religious belief; it’s everyone’s Bible. It’s full of good moral values and great teachings — not necessarily settled opinion, but also pure wisdom. It is a narrative, where the prophet, Almustafa — Arabic, for the Chosen as well as the Beloved — is set to return by ship to the isle of his birth after twelve years of exile in the city of Orphalese.
Inspired By Nature
Not just a tale inspired by nature, a longing for the Unity of Being, and mystical extraction, which Gibran himself championed, The Prophet is the most widely read work of all time — an ageless work that speaks of love and marriage, joy and sorrow, reason and passion, beauty and death. In the process, it brings harmony and peace for anyone seeking solace and wisdom in a world that has gone wacky — even if some of its most vociferous critics wouldn’t like its design one bit.
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