Peace Be On Him

The Prophet is a book of advice or consolation with a touch of pop philosophy that can lend itself to different interpretations.

The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran; Since it is now out of copyright different editions are available. This review is based on the illustrated Rupa edition, priced Rs. 60.

Shakespeare, who was “not of an age but for all time”, is the best selling poet of all time. Second is Lao-Tzu, the master of Taoist philosophy, infinitely enigmatic in its meanings and therefore attractive at all times. Third is the Leba nese poet Kahlil Gibran who owes his place in the trinity to just one book, The Prophet, a collection of 26 prose poems, delivered as sermons by a fictional wise man in a faraway place and time. Since its publication in 1923, The Prophet has sold nine million copies in America alone and many more in the rest of the world. What is the secret of its perennial fascination and above all, does it qualify to be a classic? That is, can it read again and again and will it appear different at every reading as a new book? The Prophet is a book for all seasons. Its words are recited at weddings and funerals; it is quoted in books and articles on training professions in narrow fields of specialisations; and in commercial ads for products of all kinds.

The Prophet is a character called Almustafa who gives advice on all matters like love, work, on joy and sorrow, and so forth. But there is an ambiguity in his counsels, in the manner of astrologers with their horoscopes with statements that are widely applicable. At times, Almustafa’s vagueness is such that you can’t figure out what he means. Look at them closely and you notice that he is saying something specific; namely, everything is something else. Freedom is slavery; waking is dreaming; belief is doubt; joy is pain; death is life. So, whatever you are doing, you needn’t worry. All this negation can be quite comforting when you are in trouble, which explains why it has been so widely accepted. They appeal not only by their seeming correction of conventional wisdom but more so by their hypnotic power, their negation of the rational process.

Prima facie, the book sounds religious which it is, in the sense that Gibran was familiar with the basic tenets of Buddhism, the Koran but above all with the Bible, in both its Arabic and King James translations. Many of the paradoxes are taken straight from the Sermon on the Mount but they are made simpler for 20th century readers who long for the comforts of religion but not the organised religion of any church, let alone the instructions of any deity on how to get through the slings and arrows of life. Very simply, The Prophet is comforting for people in doubt or in trouble because its central message is, “You are far, far greater than you know and All is well.”

This mix, with its emphasis on suffering, prophecy and the religion of love was the rock on which Gibran built his message. For instance, when people gathered around him and asked him for his final words of wisdom on the existential problems of life, all he says is that love involves suffering and that “your soul is a battlefield upon which your reason and your judgement wage war against your passion and your appetite.” And goes on to add: “Your reason and your passion are your rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or be held at a standstill in midseas.”

The right balance

Gibran’s philosophy is against two extravagances: “To exclude reason, to admit only reason.” As he puts it, “for reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.” Therefore, he says, “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 daily resurrection, and like a phoenix rise above its own ashes.” To put it in a nutshell, “you should rest in reason and move in passion.”

If you cut through the rhetoric, Gibran’s leading traits are clear — idealism, vagueness, sentimentality. This would be called “inspirational literature” (a genre that is hugely popular now) but it is also a book of advice or consolation with a touch of pop philosophy that can lend itself to different interpretations.

New meanings

This explains why it has always been in print since publication — every common reader can see different things in it and come back to it in times of trouble. Which is what makes it a classic by the conventional meaning of the word.

But there is more to its success than “chicken soup for the soul”, to borrow the title of a current bestseller of inspirational literature. It is short, less than 100 pages, a selling point not to be missed. And since the text is in sections you can dip into it here and there, as most people do with the Bible or religious tomes, which makes the book even shorter to go through.