KHALIL GIBRAN
S. Jagadisan
“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.