Khalil Gibran

KHALIL GIBRANtc "KHALIL GIBRAN"

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what ask what you can do for your country”. 

The walls of many American homes are adorned with a plaque carrying this statement made popular by the late John F. Kennedy. The statement forms part of an article in Arabic by Khalil Gibran under the title “The New Deal” or “The New Frontier”.  The article was an exhortation to the countries in the Middle East in general and the Lebanese in particular.  It is in the form of a series of antithetical statements focusing on the contrast between the old and the new, between ignorance and enlightenment, between stagnation and progress, between exploitation and injustice on the one hand and commitment to values on the other. In concluding the article, Gibran says “The children of tomorrow are ones called by life and they will fallow it with steady steps and heads high; there the dawn of new frontiers, no smoke will veil their eyes and no jingle of chains will drown out their voices.  They are few in number, but the difference is as between a grain of wheat and a stack of hay.  They are like summits, which can see and hear each other-not like caves, which cannot see or hear.  They are the seed dropped by the hand of God in the field, breaking through its pod, and waving its sapling leaves before the face of sun.  It shall grow into a mighty tree, its root in the heart of the earth and its branches in the sky”.

The article written in the early part of the last century and addressed to a particular community is relevant to all times and nations. 

Gibran’s mother exerted an enduring influence on him. He has expressed his love of his mother in the most tender, touching terms. “Mother is everything in this life; She is consolation in time of sorrowing, and hope in the time of grieving and power in moments of weakness.  She is the fountainhead of compassion, tolerance and forgiveness. He who loses his mother loses a bosom upon which he can rest his head, the hand that blesses and eyes, which watch over him.

The enchanting valley Wadi Qadisha and the cedar covered the mountains of Lebanon cast their spell on Gibran. “To visit the Wadi Qadisha is to leave the modern world and to be plunged body and spirit into an atmosphere both ancient and timeless.  It is a beauty of wild and unbridled quality and it has a mighty force that compels the mind to dwell upon words we have for eternity” (Barbana Young, Gibran’s friend biographer).  Girban’s ancestor, the Phoenicians called ‘the believers in immortality’ performed their rites in the cedar forest.  Though physically he was filled with nostalgia for the cedar forest, the home and hunts of the Gods.  The mountain scenery and all the associated legends and tradition has become part of his begin.  “The things which the child loves remains in the domain of the heart until old age.  The most beautiful thing in this our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves.  I am one of those places regardless of time and place”.

Gibran was a profile writer who wrote in Arabic for the Lebanese, the Syrians and the Arab world and in English for those knowing English.  His principal works include Tears and Laughter, Spirits Rebellious, The broken Wings, The Prophet, the Madman, Secrets of the Heart and Jesus, the Son of God.  The prophet has been translated into more than twenty languages.  Almustafa, the prophet, “the chosen and the beloved” has lived in a foreign country for twelve years. On the eve of his departure to his homeland, he answer in a mystical and paradoxical strain, a series of question on a variety of subject. In his writing, Gibran strikes different notes-autobiographical, mystical, romantic, reflective, allegorical, censorious, and revolutionary.  He reacted sharply to the corruption in society, politics and religious.  The story of Khalil, the Heretic pulsates with righteous indignation. It is a tirade not against religion as such, but as such the hypocrisy, injustice, and self-aggrandisement in the name of religion

Gibran’s writing in Arabic, charged with passionate intensity and lyrical fervour, appeared in the Arabic newspaper Al-Mouhajer (The Emigrant) and Mir’aat Al-Ghard (The Mirror of the West) published in Boston.  They were primarily meant to enlighten the Lebanese and exhort them to wake up their slumber and slavery.  But writings have a universal appeal, relevance and validity.  Griban was a crusader and visionary who pleaded for the reformation of society on a moral foundation.  The poem “Seven Reprimands” compels attention.

I reprimanded my soul seven times
The first time: when I attempted to exalt
      myself by exploiting the weak
The second time: When I feigned a limp
     before those who were crippled.
The third time: When given a choice
    I elected the easy rather than difficult.
The fourth time: when I made a mistake
    I consoled myself with the mistake of others
The Fifth time: when I was docile because of fear    
and claimed to be strong in patience.
The sixth time: When I held my garments upraised
   to avoid the mud of life
The seventh time: When I stood in Hymnal to God
   and considered singing a virtue

Gibran’s description of a good citizen is worth pondering over:

“It is to acknowledge the other person’s right before asserting your own; but always to be conscious of your own.  It is to be free in word, and deed; but it is also to know that your freedom is subject to the other person’s freedom.  It is to create in love and with faith.  It is to produced by labour and only by labour and to spend less than you have produced that your children may not be dependent upon the state for support when you are no more”.

Gibran was excommunicated from the Maronite Church for his anti-establishment tone and stance.  His book Spirits Rebellious was burnt in public in Beirut.  Later, the order of excommunication was revoked. He died on April 10, 1931 in New York. In July 1931, he was buried in Bsharri his birthplace.  All Lebanon lamented his death as one man and honoured him with a hero’s funeral. He bequeathed a large amount of money for the development of his homeland and appealed to the Lebanese to remain in their country and develop it and not to immigrate.  It was Gibran’s desire to acquire the Mar Sarkis Monastery in Bsharri.  His desire was fulfilled posthumously by his sister Mariana and in January 1932, his body was moved to its final resting place in the monastery. His belonging and books were sent to the Gibran Museum in the monastery.