The Prophet

"Jesus on one side of my chest, and Mohammed on the other."

KHalil Gibran

The most famous book of Khalil Gibran is The Prophet. It was a great experience of hearing, reading such beautiful sentences full of deep meanings. It can be wondered who The prophet in this book is. According to the statements of him above, we can consider both of them are told as Prophet in the book. Because they are the chosen people by our Lord, Allah. They’ve all said the same truth because of there is nothing else but Allah’s truth.

In the book, people are asking the Prophet several questions on different topics and the Prophet is answering before his leaving from the city Orphales.

When I think about the central idea of the story of the topics, i found lots of Sufism ideas. Especially in the topics on religion, giving, teaching, good&evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty… Yeah most of the topics are related the core understandings of sufism. Surely it is my opinion. All of us have different point of views and we see the world from where we’re standing at that time. Even so i can say that have found lots of beautiful common features.  

When I started to read, i’ve been underlining all of the sentences, because i haven’t met such beautiful, full of profoundly meaningful sentences recently. They minutely raining on your mind, then sinking your soil of spirit slowly. So i want to share with you, most powerful sentences of these topics for me.

Hope to enjoy them,

With Love,

Zehra

Beauty

…

And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. 

It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,

But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,

But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,

But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

…

Religion

….

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.

Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all men:

For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.

And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

…

Talking

…

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

…

When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.

Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;

For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered

When the colour is forgotten and the vessel is no more.

…

Teaching

…

No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.

…

Pleasure

…

nd now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,

But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.

For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,

And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,

And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

…

Death

…

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.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

....
They're all treasures, aren't they :)