The Prophet

Almustafa has spent twelve years in the city of Orphalese, waiting for the ship that will carry him home. As the vessel finally appears, the townspeople gather around him and ask him to speak before he leaves. What follows is a series of short, lyrical discourses, twenty-eight in all, each answering a question about how to live.

The subjects are the ones every life runs into sooner or later: love, marriage, children, work, joy and sorrow, freedom, religion, and death. Almustafa does not hand down rules. He speaks in images and paradoxes, asking his listeners to see their ordinary experiences from a gentler and wider angle. Each section stands on its own and can be read in a few minutes, yet together they build toward a farewell.

Kahlil Gibran wrote in a poetic prose that borrows the cadence of scripture without belonging to any single creed, which is part of why the book has travelled so far across cultures and generations. It is a quiet, reflective work, suited to being dipped into again and again, and it rewards readers who want to pause over the big questions of existence rather than rush past them.