Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran (88 page)

Yea, death and prison we mete out

To small offenders of the laws,

While honor, wealth, and full respect

On greater pirates we bestow.

To steal a flower we call mean,

To rob a field is chivalry;

Who kills the body he must die,

Who kills the spirit he goes free.

   
P-47

What justice does authority display when it kills the killer? When it imprisons the robber? When it descends on a neighbouring country and slays its people? What does justice think of the authority under which a killer punishes the one who kills, and a thief sentences the one who steals?

TL-T-9

When a man kills another man, the people say he is a murderer, but when the Emir kills him, the Emir is just. When a man robs a monastery, they say he is a thief, but when the Emir robs him of his life, the Emir is honourable. When a woman betrays her husband, they say she is an adulteress, but when the Emir makes her walk naked in the streets and stones her later, the Emir is noble. Shedding of blood is forbidden, but who made it lawful for the Emir? Stealing one's money is a crime, but taking away one's life is a noble act. Betrayal of a husband may be an ugly deed, but stoning of living souls is a beautiful sight. Shall we meet evil with evil and say this is the Law? Shall we fight corruption with greater corruption and say this is the Rule? Shall we conquer crimes with more crimes and say this is Justice?

SR-T-315

The gifts which derive from justice are greater than those that spring from charity.

WM-ST-65

K

KIN

He who understands you is greater kin to you than your own brother. For even your own kindred may neither understand you nor know your true worth.

WM-ST-62

KINDNESS

From a sensitive woman's heart springs the happiness of mankind, and from the kindness of her noble spirit comes mankind's affection.

SR-T-262

The kindness of the people is but an

Empty shell containing no gem or

Precious pearl. With two hearts do

People live; a small one of deep

Softness, the other of steel. And

Kindness is too often a shield,

And generosity too often a sword.

   
T-367

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the goodness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he goes. He who does not see the kingdom of heaven in this life will never see it in the coming life. We came not into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life.

SR-T-256

KINGDOMS

Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities and belong to no settlement. The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.

Men are weak, and it is sad that they divide among themselves. The world is narrow and it is unwise to cleave it into kingdoms, empires, and provinces.

TL-T-4

KNOWLEDGE

Learning follows various roads.

We note the start but not the end.

For Time and Fate must rule the course,

While we see not beyond the bend.

The best of knowledge is a dream

The gainer holds steadfast, uncowed

By ridicule, and moves serene,

Despised and lowly in the crowd.

   
P-52

L

LAW

What is Law? Who saw it coming with the sun from the depths of heaven? What human saw the heart of God and found its will or purpose? In what century did the angels walk among the people and preach to them, saying, “Forbid the weak from enjoying life, and kill the outlaws with the sharp edge of the sword, and step upon the sinners with iron feet”?

SR-T-316

Are you a soldier compelled by the harsh law of man to forsake wife and children, and go forth into the field of battle for the sake of
Greed,
which your leaders mis-call
Duty?

Are you a prisoner, pent up in a dark dungeon for some petty offense and condemned by those who seek to reform man by corrupting him?

Are you a young woman on whom God has bestowed beauty, but who has fallen prey to the base lust of the rich, who deceived you and bought your body but not your heart, and abandoned you to misery and distress?

If you are one of these, you are a martyr to man's law. You are wretched, and your wretchedness is the fruit of the iniquity of the strong and the injustice of the tyrant, the brutality of the rich, and the selfishness of the lewd and the covetous.

WM-ST-44

Man is weak by his own hand, for he

Has refashioned God's law into his own

Confining manner of life, chaining

Himself with the coarse irons of the

Rules of society which he desired; and

He is steadfast in refusing to be aware

Of the great tragedy he has cast upon

Himself and his children and their sons.

Man has erected on this earth a prison

Of quarrels from which he cannot now

Escape, and misery is his voluntary lot.

   
T-366

LAWS

People are saying that I am the enemy of just laws, of family ties and old tradition. Those people are telling the truth. I do not love man-made laws … I love the sacred and spiritual kindness which should be the source of every law upon the earth, for kindness is the shadow of God in man.

MS-V

Human society has yielded for seventy centuries to corrupted laws until it cannot understand the meaning of superior and eternal laws…. Spiritual disease is inherited from one generation to another until it becomes a part of the people, who look upon it, not as a disease, but as a natural gift, showered by God on Adam. If these people found someone free from the germs of this disease, they would think of him with shame and disgrace.

SP-P-31

LEARNING

Learning nourishes the seed but it gives you no seed of its own.

MS-72

Reason and learning are like body and soul. Without the body, the soul is nothing but empty wind. Without the soul, the body is but a senseless frame.

Reason without learning is like the untilled soil, or like the human body that lacks nourishment.

WM-ST-55

Learning is the only wealth tyrants cannot despoil. Only death can dim the lamp of knowledge that is within you. The true wealth of a nation lies not in its gold or silver but in its learning, wisdom, and in the uprightness of its sons.

WM-ST-61

LIARS

There are among the people murderers who have never committed murder, thieves who have never stolen and liars who have spoken nothing but the truth.

MS-72

LIBERTY

I walked lonely in the Valley of the Shadow of Life, where the past attempts to conceal itself in guilt, and the soul of the future folds and rests itself too long. There, at the edge of Blood and Tears River, which crawled like a poisonous viper and twisted like a criminal's dreams, I listened to the frightened whisper of the ghosts of slaves, and gazed at nothingness.

When midnight came and the spirits emerged from hidden places, I saw a cadaverous, dying spectre fall to her knees, gazing at the moon. I approached her, asking, “What is your name?”

“My name is Liberty,” replied this ghastly shadow of a corpse.

And I inquired, “Where are your children?”

And Liberty, tearful and weak, gasped, “One died crucified, another died mad, and the third one is not yet born.”

She limped away and spoke further, but the mist in my eyes and cries of my heart prevented sight or hearing.

SH-T-66

Everything on earth lives according to the law of nature, and from that law emerges the glory and joy of liberty; but man is denied this fortune, because he set for the God-given soul a limited and earthly law of his own. He made for himself strict rules. Man built a narrow and painful prison in which he secluded his affections and desires. He dug out a deep grave in which he buried his heart and its purpose. If an individual, through the dictates of his soul, declares his withdrawal from society and violates the law, his fellowmen will say he is a rebel worthy of exile, or an infamous creature worthy only of execution. Will man remain a slave of self-confinement until the end of the world? Or will he be freed by the passing of time and live in the Spirit for the Spirit? Will man insist upon staring downward and backward at the earth? Or will he turn his eyes toward the sun so he will not see the shadow of his body amongst the skulls and thorns?

SR-T-228

LIFE

Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.

SH-T-144

Life
is a woman bathing in the tears of her lovers and anointing herself with the blood of her victims. Her raiments are white days, lined with the darkness of night. She takes the human heart to lover, but denies herself in marriage.

Life is an enchantress

Who seduces us with her beauty
–

But he who knows her wiles

Will flee her enchantments.

   
WM-ST-85

How often I talked with Harvard professors, yet felt as if I were talking to a professor from Al-Azhar! How often I have conversed with some Bostonian ladies and heard them say things I used to hear from simple and ignorant old women in Syria! Life is one, Mikhail; it manifests itself in the villages of Lebanon as in Boston, New York, and San Francisco.

KG-P-37

LIGHT

The true light is that which emanates from within man, and reveals the secrets of the heart to the soul, making it happy and contented with life.

SR-T-255

LIMITATION

The person who is limited in heart and thought is inclined to love that which is limited in life, and the weak-sighted cannot see more than one cubit ahead upon the path he treads, nor more than one cubit of the wall upon which he rests his shoulder.

SH-T-129

LONGING

In the will of man there is a power of longing which turns the mist in ourselves into sun.

SP-ST-86

LOVE

The power to

Love is God's greatest gift to man,

For it never will be taken from the

Blessed one who loves.

   
SH-T-99

Love lies in the soul alone,

Not in the body, and like wine

Should stimulate our better self

To welcome gifts of Love Divine.

   
P-61

Man cannot reap love until after sad and revealing separation, and bitter patience, and desperate hardship.

TL-T-115

Yesterday I stood at the temple door interrogating the passersby about the mystery and merit of Love.

And before me passed an old man with an emaciated and melancholy face, who sighed and said:

“Love is a natural weakness bestowed upon us by the first man.”

But a virile youth retorted:

“Love joins our present with the past and the future.”

Then a woman with a tragic face sighed and said:

“Love is a deadly poison injected by black vipers, that crawl from the caves of hell. The poison seems fresh as dew and the thirsty soul eagerly drinks it; but after the first intoxication the drinker sickens and dies a slow death.”

Then a beautiful, rosy-cheeked damsel smilingly said:

“Love is a wine served by the brides of Dawn which strengthens strong souls and enables them to ascend to the stars.”

After her a black-robed, bearded man, frowning, said:

“Love is the blind ignorance with which youth begins and ends.”

Another, smiling, declared:

“Love is a divine knowledge that enables men to see as much as the gods.”

Then said a blind man, feeling his way with a cane:

“Love is a blinding mist that keeps the soul from discerning the secret of existence, so that the heart sees only trembling phantoms of desire among the hills, and hears only echoes of cries from voiceless valleys.”

And a feeble ancient, dragging his feet like two rags, said, in quavering tones:

“Love is the rest of the body in the quiet of the grave, the tranquility of the soul in the depth of Eternity.”

And a five-year-old child, after him, said laughing:

“Love is my father and mother, and no one knows Love save my father and mother.”

And so, all who passed spoke of Love as the image of their hopes and frustrations, leaving it a mystery as before.

TM-ST-88

Those whom Love has not chosen as followers do not hear when Love calls.

BW-ST-75

Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms without the aid of seasons.

BW-ST-54

Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course.

BW-ST-35

Love passes by us, robed in meekness; but we flee from her in fear, or hide in the darkness; or else pursue her, to do evil in her name.

WM-ST-46

Love that comes between the naivete and awakening of youth satisfies itself with possessing, and grows with embraces. But Love which is born in the firmament's lap and has descended with the night's secrets is not contented with anything but Eternity and immortality; it does not stand reverently before anything except deity.