An image of the author of ‘The Prophet’, Khalil Gibran.

One of the most sold books of the last century ‘The Prophet’ was published in the year 1923. The Lebanese-American poet and writer Khalil Gibran is the author of the book. This book is rightly considered as the masterpiece of Gibran. The book discusses different themes of life. The genre of the work is prose poetry. In these prose poetry fables Al-Mustafa, the protagonist, while leaving the city of Orphalese gives his last thoughts on subjects as diverse as love, marriage, work, crime and punishment, children, eating and drinking, Joy and Sorrow and other everyday phenomena.

The significance of the book lies in the fact that every time a reader opens it, s/he finds new meanings and understanding of life. The expression of the poetic prose is exquisite. The book has been published in more than 50 languages and rarely remained out of touch. It is one of the most widely read classics of all times. The Prophet offers a dogma-free universal spiritualism as opposed to orthodox religion, and his vision of the spiritual was not moralistic. In fact, he urged people to be non-judgmental.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
–Khalil Gibran