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The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran's Masterpiece Illustrated With Original Drawings by The Author
71 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 26, 2024
35 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Kahlil Gibran
1,329 books15.1k followersKahlil Gibran (Arabic:
جبران خليل جبران
) was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer.
Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon (then part of Ottoman Mount Lebanon), as a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his literary career. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero.
He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again, especially in the 1960s counterculture.
Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.
Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon (then part of Ottoman Mount Lebanon), as a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his literary career. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero.
He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again, especially in the 1960s counterculture.
Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 4, 2025
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran has been translated in more than one hundred languages, as one of the most translated works in history and at the same time, it is one of the bestselling books of all time…and I wonder why
Nine out of 10
There is one bright (or foolish, taking a cue from Kahlil Gibran, perhaps both) standup comedian that has taken a different view of the celebrated If by Rudyard Kipling - “If you can keep your head when all about you…Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…’- and said more or less that in that particular situation, you should have your head examined and not boast that ‘you are a man my friend’ for there is something wrong with you and you need not be proud of it.
Evidently, that was a joke, but the sometimes tendentious, preachy, proselytizing tone of The Prophet could tempt mischievous, silly, affected and impervious to the high calling people like the under signed to take the messages more in jest than try to take them seriously, never mind apply the suggestions, or is it the doctrine of the Prophet Al Mustafa, which sounds to mystical, farfetched to be spiritual.
This is admittedly a preposterous attempt to have an original perspective, it shows the unease, opacity with which this reader treats matters that are close to religion, an impiety and a superficiality that will not bring him to Flow aka Optimal Experience http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/02/f...
The Prophet sounds exactly like the type of magnum opus (for multitudes, though somehow not for yours truly…let us just say not yet, Insha’Allah) that will bring readers into the Zone, offering the light, the path to enlightenment, solutions, definitions for love, marriage, Joy and a few of the other crucial themes of humanity, and in some, he does seem to find the proper Way…work has the right treatment for instance…
He talks about love and work, and though the combination is still in the domain of the mystical more than the everyday life, there is something there, for he anticipates some findings in psychology, where it has been proved that the Optimal choice would be to find Your Calling or vocation, which is placed at the intersection of three groups: first, the area where you have what you like to do, second, the group of things you are good at doing and third and last, but not least, the zone where you have actions with meaning for you…if you find the few things that have all these characteristics, then you can say Eureka.
There is a lot (perhaps, only I do not see it J) in what Al Mustafa says about giving – we need to be a Merit Finder and not a fault finder this is one of the rules of happiness – studies have looked at ‘Random acts of kindness’ and found that those who are involved in them are happier – hence yet another rule of positivity – and The Prophet seems to be again on to something when he ‘encourages’ giving…
Nevertheless, he takes this to another extreme (for this apprehensive, limited listener) when he insists on the idea that ‘you do not really give anything’ for this comes to you from – what is it by the way, for he is not really that doctrinaire, but the presence of God does loom in the text and incidentally, that is another qualm that I have with the text – above, you do not really have it…and yes, I get it, everything is relative, there comes a pandemic and takes it all away, or it becomes pointless to ‘have’ for you are locked up anyway, and so is everybody else, except for the lunatics of course, the Trump, Bolsanaro and other fools and their fanatic cult members and there is on top of all this another psychology finding, called Hedonic Adaptation, a phenomenon that explains how we get used with material things and soon after we get a new jacket, shoes, even a car, we enjoy it, but soon stop noticing material things
Al Mustafa says that you must not select and presumably give to all, for ‘the orchard does not give its fruits to the lucky few’ – this is paraphrasing, not a quote – and indeed, the psychological studies have looked at those who are tested, giving stamps to people, or small gifts and it is proved that doing voluntary work, ‘committing acts of random kindness’ does improve our wellbeing (well, perhaps yours, not mine, seeing as instead of being in awe with Kahlil, Gibran and his ‘chef d’oeuvre’, I am at times amused and skeptical about the wise guy) thus certifying the advice from the book, but what if this has the effect of a boomerang…when we moved into this house, where I write this stupendous piece, we gave toys to the neighbors who live across the fence from this gated community, who are poorer and after they said thank you, they would throw things back, hitting Zara, the poor dog, and they have been more or less at it for years, hitting the brains with excruciating noise, fights, expletives, manele, when not pouring over physical dirt, for this what happens when you give indiscriminately and they take you for an idiot…
How about the carnivorous advice, when he is asked about eating and drinking, the wise prophet should have known better and said something like my dear people, stop killing animals, abusing and torturing them…this is such a disgusting aspect of humanity, detailed and documented in the fantastic, glorious Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind by the thinker of the moment Yuval Hariri http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/s... that needs to stop soon.
Instead, the Prophet talks about the fact that ‘you must kill to eat and rob of milk the new born’ and if he indicates that one should be conscious of these acts, and that could be envisaged as a step towards a better attitude, still, WTF (one vulgar, base chap like the under signed could say) why is this so-called prophet not visionary enough to say stop the massacre and yes, how can we call him a prophet if he does not get what millions of vegans see without calling themselves oracles, clairvoyants…
In other words, if we have a lot to cheer and assimilate from this major work, there are some causes for reflection and rejection, without being so fundamentalist, excessive, extreme as a Woke posy, still, it is doubtful that one could take advice from a Sibyl, prognosticator (these are synonyms for prophet) that is not able to see that the Killing of a Sacred Deer, billions of farm animals is despicable and wrong…
Nine out of 10
There is one bright (or foolish, taking a cue from Kahlil Gibran, perhaps both) standup comedian that has taken a different view of the celebrated If by Rudyard Kipling - “If you can keep your head when all about you…Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…’- and said more or less that in that particular situation, you should have your head examined and not boast that ‘you are a man my friend’ for there is something wrong with you and you need not be proud of it.
Evidently, that was a joke, but the sometimes tendentious, preachy, proselytizing tone of The Prophet could tempt mischievous, silly, affected and impervious to the high calling people like the under signed to take the messages more in jest than try to take them seriously, never mind apply the suggestions, or is it the doctrine of the Prophet Al Mustafa, which sounds to mystical, farfetched to be spiritual.
This is admittedly a preposterous attempt to have an original perspective, it shows the unease, opacity with which this reader treats matters that are close to religion, an impiety and a superficiality that will not bring him to Flow aka Optimal Experience http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/02/f...
The Prophet sounds exactly like the type of magnum opus (for multitudes, though somehow not for yours truly…let us just say not yet, Insha’Allah) that will bring readers into the Zone, offering the light, the path to enlightenment, solutions, definitions for love, marriage, Joy and a few of the other crucial themes of humanity, and in some, he does seem to find the proper Way…work has the right treatment for instance…
He talks about love and work, and though the combination is still in the domain of the mystical more than the everyday life, there is something there, for he anticipates some findings in psychology, where it has been proved that the Optimal choice would be to find Your Calling or vocation, which is placed at the intersection of three groups: first, the area where you have what you like to do, second, the group of things you are good at doing and third and last, but not least, the zone where you have actions with meaning for you…if you find the few things that have all these characteristics, then you can say Eureka.
There is a lot (perhaps, only I do not see it J) in what Al Mustafa says about giving – we need to be a Merit Finder and not a fault finder this is one of the rules of happiness – studies have looked at ‘Random acts of kindness’ and found that those who are involved in them are happier – hence yet another rule of positivity – and The Prophet seems to be again on to something when he ‘encourages’ giving…
Nevertheless, he takes this to another extreme (for this apprehensive, limited listener) when he insists on the idea that ‘you do not really give anything’ for this comes to you from – what is it by the way, for he is not really that doctrinaire, but the presence of God does loom in the text and incidentally, that is another qualm that I have with the text – above, you do not really have it…and yes, I get it, everything is relative, there comes a pandemic and takes it all away, or it becomes pointless to ‘have’ for you are locked up anyway, and so is everybody else, except for the lunatics of course, the Trump, Bolsanaro and other fools and their fanatic cult members and there is on top of all this another psychology finding, called Hedonic Adaptation, a phenomenon that explains how we get used with material things and soon after we get a new jacket, shoes, even a car, we enjoy it, but soon stop noticing material things
Al Mustafa says that you must not select and presumably give to all, for ‘the orchard does not give its fruits to the lucky few’ – this is paraphrasing, not a quote – and indeed, the psychological studies have looked at those who are tested, giving stamps to people, or small gifts and it is proved that doing voluntary work, ‘committing acts of random kindness’ does improve our wellbeing (well, perhaps yours, not mine, seeing as instead of being in awe with Kahlil, Gibran and his ‘chef d’oeuvre’, I am at times amused and skeptical about the wise guy) thus certifying the advice from the book, but what if this has the effect of a boomerang…when we moved into this house, where I write this stupendous piece, we gave toys to the neighbors who live across the fence from this gated community, who are poorer and after they said thank you, they would throw things back, hitting Zara, the poor dog, and they have been more or less at it for years, hitting the brains with excruciating noise, fights, expletives, manele, when not pouring over physical dirt, for this what happens when you give indiscriminately and they take you for an idiot…
How about the carnivorous advice, when he is asked about eating and drinking, the wise prophet should have known better and said something like my dear people, stop killing animals, abusing and torturing them…this is such a disgusting aspect of humanity, detailed and documented in the fantastic, glorious Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind by the thinker of the moment Yuval Hariri http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/s... that needs to stop soon.
Instead, the Prophet talks about the fact that ‘you must kill to eat and rob of milk the new born’ and if he indicates that one should be conscious of these acts, and that could be envisaged as a step towards a better attitude, still, WTF (one vulgar, base chap like the under signed could say) why is this so-called prophet not visionary enough to say stop the massacre and yes, how can we call him a prophet if he does not get what millions of vegans see without calling themselves oracles, clairvoyants…
In other words, if we have a lot to cheer and assimilate from this major work, there are some causes for reflection and rejection, without being so fundamentalist, excessive, extreme as a Woke posy, still, it is doubtful that one could take advice from a Sibyl, prognosticator (these are synonyms for prophet) that is not able to see that the Killing of a Sacred Deer, billions of farm animals is despicable and wrong…
Read
August 9, 2025The kind of book to be read and re-read, contemplated carefully and lived according to. Beautiful.
December 2, 2023
Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" unfolds as a symphony of wisdom, each verse a delicate note resonating with the echoes of the human soul. Through poetic prose, Gibran weaves a tapestry of universal truths, inviting readers to embark on a profound journey of self-discovery. The words dance like whispers of ancient truths, embracing the reader in a timeless embrace where philosophy and spirituality converge. In this eloquent masterpiece, Gibran paints the essence of life's profound questions with strokes of insight, leaving an indelible mark on the canvas of one's contemplation.
January 21, 2024
One of two books I read every single year, and will keep reading as long as I live. A great little read, full of wisdom, poignant beauty and deep insight into life and death, and how to live fully and skillfully during our allotted time here on earth. Highly recommended to just about anyone!
July 20, 2024
This is a classic.
July 28, 2025
This is the book I would take if I could only have one book. It's beautiful, Profound, wise and speaks to each of our every day concerns. Love, marriage, children, and much much more. Read it next.
December 1, 2025
I loved the way he worded the poems. A few quotes will stick with me forever I think. I liked the poem about love and marriage.
it was nice to read this book. Very cool:)
it was nice to read this book. Very cool:)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews