The Prophet

The Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran.^[1] It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran's best-known work. The Kahlil Gibran Collective says that The Prophet has been translated into over 100 languages,^[2] and is one of the best selling books of all time. It has never been out of print.^[3]

Synopsis

The prophet Almustafa, having lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years, finally sees the ship that will carry him home arrive in the harbour. The people of Orphalese, seeing that the prophet is about to leave, call to Almustafa, begging him to stay, and follow him to the great square before the temple. The seeress Almitra, the first person in the city to believe in Almustafa, comes out of the temple and asks him to speak to the gathered crowd before leaving. The rest of the book, apart from the final chapter, consists of Almustafa's speeches to the crowd on a number of themes relating to life and the human condition.

The people ask the prophet to speak, in turn, of love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

After speaking on all of these topics, Almustafa says a final farewell to the people of Orphalese, and departs on the ship.