The Prophet: A Spiritual Classic
Kahlil Gibran with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Capstone/A Wiley Brand (May 2020)

A “classic” at least in durable popularity, if not in timeless wisdom

The man we know as Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was born Khalil Gibran in the northern area of Ottoman Lebanon and relocated with his mother, one sister, and brother to the United States in 1895, arriving in Boston. A registration error changed his first name to Kahlil. He returned to Lebanon to attend a secondary school, permanently relocated back to the United States in 1902, living again in Boston and then in New York, on West 10th Street in lower Manhattan, where he died at age 48. By then he had written The Prophet (published in 1923) which created for him a fame that continues today.  It has sold more than ten million copies and translated in more than 100 languages.

Briefly, a man named Almustafa (perhaps a hybrid of Jesus and Muhammad) lives on an island, Orphalese, where the natives view him as a spiritual leader from another land. For twelve years, as he waits for a ship to arrive that can take him home, he shares his thoughts and feelings about what is of greatest interest and value to humans. All this serves as the substance provided in The Prophet.

The narrative consists of 28 brief chapters of prose-poetry, 26 of which are placed between two “book-ends”:   Chapter I (“On the Coming of the Ship”) and Chapter XXVIII (“The Farewell”). Each of the chapters in between focuses on a timeless theme, from “On Love” to “On Death.”

In his Introduction to this edition, Tom Butler-Bowdon observes, “The ‘Prophet’ is a metaphor for the mystery of life: We come into the world, try to make sense of it, then go back to where we came from. At the end of our days, life can sometimes feel like a short dream. Gibran tried to express that the separation we feel from other people and all forms of life while on earth is not real. As Almustafa looks forward to his journey away from Orphalese, he feels as if he is ‘a boundless drop in a boundless ocean’. We are mere expressions of a greater unity.”

Butler-Bowdon then adds, “The feeling that we are a temporary manifestation of an infinite is not only comforting, but has the ring of truth. It has been felt by countless sages throughout human history. It also accounts for the feeling of peace and liberation that we feel in reading The Prophet.”

There’s no denying the enduring popularity of this book. The combination of Christian and Islamic values continues to appeal to millions of people throughout the world who view Gibran as “their prophet.”

That said, I would not rate him Five Stars as a spiritual leader (nor would he) or rate The Prophet Five Stars as a “classic” work of prose-poetry, much less of theology and/or philosophy. I do rate it Five Stars as a publishing phenomenon, superbly presented by Tom Butler-Bowdon and Capstone/Wiley.

And now, like Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”