The Prophet
Author: Kahlil Gibran
I picked up this book because, I’ve been seeing this name ‘Kahlil Gibran’ everywhere on instagram. He has some really good quotes and I saved some of them. Life quotes and such. And I was curious, who is this person. And I wanted a compilation of his quotes. So, I looked him up and turns out he’s a muslim writer.
This book, is very short. I finished it on my trip. I finished it in a day actually. The first chapter, to me personally was a bit odd. Maybe because I’m not mature enough to understand what he meant? But the remaining chapters, resonated with me SO MUCH. I have a lot of quotes saved. I’ll elaborate more on ones that I resonate a lot to.
And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation
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
Yes, very poetic. But to some extent, I really like poetry, but only a certain kind of poetry. Mostly poetry that I can relate to personally. Or if it’s poetry about something that I care about, something that concerns me, I would like it. Poetry is beautiful. So beautiful. Especially arabic poetry. I wish I can understand arabic just so I can read arabic poetry all day.
To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness.
^ This is very important. You know, to be a strong community, or family, or friends or whatever that involves more than one person. You need to maintain your individual self. Sometimes, when we dwindle with people too much, we lose ourselves. And that is not good. Two pillars are stronger apart. Remember that.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
Yes, you can only ever change yourselves. Never expect other people to change.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
This ^ reminds me A LOT of my friends. :’) I love you guys. Often times, I am offered help, and me being me, I don’t like asking for help. When I don’t show up with a happy face or just not show up at all, some of you will ask me how I’m feeling and you don’t know how much I needed it. I strive to do the same. Personally, I think I rarely offer help. But when I receive help from people, even without asking, it makes me want to offer help too, because I just felt that gratitude in me, and I want to pass it around. Random acts of kindness is a very powerful thing.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
This is about killing animals to eat. Why muslims have a certain way to kill an animal to make it halal.
You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge. And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, And all work is empty save when there is love; And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love?
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life.
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
^^^ THIS. OhMyGosh. This resonates with me SOOO much. And I even came upon this revelation a few weeks before reading this book. Trust me, the moment I read that line, I felt so heard. I felt so understood. A few weeks before reading this book, I was so very sad. And when I’m sad, I retreat into my mind, and ponder and cry. It went on for a week. And in that very depressing episode of my life, I realised this(the quote ^). Yea.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Yes. You know, it’s disturbing in a way. You can’t be happy without sadness. At least in this life. I guess that’s life.
Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master?
Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.
Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,
And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.
The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,
And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.
Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,
And still more often the condemned is the burden bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.
^ This is so true, and most times, not spoken of.
Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man.
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.
This is true. I personally experienced this with friends.
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.
This is why we(or I) love to read quotes and listen to music that resonates with us. We just wanted to hear what our heart is feeling.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “aye”.
There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone. The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.
Some people talk a lot. And sometimes I wonder, what is going on in their minds?
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.
This, wow. So true though. Yes, when learning, most times you want to talk through your thought process. But when it comes to emotions. Talking actually prevents you from thinking your emotions through(?, at least that is true with me). In silence, you are forced to think about stuff. And in that silence where revelations come. Maybe it is true even in learning as well. Idk.
You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself. Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
This ^ yes. It’s sometimes okay/necessary to look out for yourself. Because, if not you, then who?
Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance." For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
This makes me think. You know when we walk by a street. And maybe we encounter a person with clutches or some form of mobility aid. And maybe they are walking/moving quite slowly. Do we just overtake them? Is that rude? Or is it more rude to walk at their pace? Which one?
For the truly good ask not the naked, “Where is your garment?” nor the houseless, “What has befallen your house?”
For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive: And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage. The freest song comes not through bars and wires.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond.
Think not I say these things in order that you may say the one to the other, “He praised us well. “He saw but the good in us.
Yet it was not your loving mindfulness of my days and my nights that made food sweet to my mouth and girdled my sleep with visions? For this I bless you most: You give much and know not that you give at all.
Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you. It was but yesterday we met in a dream.
Man’s needs change, but not his love, nor his desire that his love should satisfy his needs.
How can one be indeed near unless he be far?
That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined.
little while, a moment.
A great book, in my opinion. Asma read it as well! Because as I was reading it, I posted some of the quotes on my instagram story, and she decided to read it. It helped with her reading slump because this is such a small book. And then we exchanged highlights and had some very interesting conversations about it together.