The Broken Wings (9 page)

Gibran’s most recurrent themes are related to the belief in God as well as to a universal conception of faith, divine love and spirituality. Actually, this subject is at the center of many of his writings, of which the ultimate achievement that reached incomparable success and fame is his masterpiece. The message that Gibran has generally dedicated his life to spread is a message of spiritual unity between all humans. It is the idea that all the different faiths of the world have a meeting point that should be sought and explored. While the many differences are rather formal, the essential core of all faiths is one. This is actually the main reason behind the presence of both Christian and Muslim tones in Gibran’s lyrical parables and reflections. The universal divine love advocated by Gibran’s works is easily found compatible with almost all human belief systems since it rather adopts an inclusive attitude rather than an exclusive attitude towards differences.

There is no doubt that Gibran’s concept of universal spirituality was influenced by the heritage and works of older writers and thinkers. Gibran was also influenced by Christian and Muslim mystics and mainly by the tradition of Muslim Sufism. Indeed, readers can easily detect the striking similarities between Gibran’s ideas and the ideas developed by Sufi poets and mystics such as Ibn Arabi and Jaleluddine Rumi. One can safely state that Gibran’s contribution was actually to introduce Sufi ideals to the West and particularly to English speakers. This was mainly through the use of a smooth, accessible style, a formal language and a great deal of religious and humanist symbolism. The difference between traditional Sufi poets such as Rumi or Ibn Arabi and Khalil Gibran is that the latter had double culture and was quite familiar with the West. This made his literature most suited to serve as a linking bridge between the wisdom of the East and the spirit of the West. It is also noteworthy that Gibran’s home country was also a meeting point of numerous religious traditions which had gradually learnt to coexist.

It is quite interesting to know that though Gibran was formally Christian belonging to the Maronite Catholic Church, he deeply respected and even venerated other faiths including Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. He also admired Baha’ism, that newly-born religion deriving from Islam which equally advocated ideals of tolerance, coexistence and convergence of all human religious traditions. Gibran’s extraordinary philosophy was to stick to one’s own religious heritage while keeping one’s arms wide open to embrace and welcome all human faiths. The same idea applies to Gibran’s attitude towards the ideal of patriotism, believing in both Lebanese nationalism as well as internationalism. To put it simply, for Gibran, the way to God that you choose for yourself does not make the other ways wrong, nor does your nationalist pride deprive you of universal and humanist ideals.

Gibran’s works, and mainly
The Prophet
, became even more popular posthumously. In fact, Gibran’s masterpiece reached the status of an icon mainly in the 1960s with the emergence of the New Age generation and youth revolutions.
The Prophet
offered a new vision of existence and a new meaning of reality in a world governed by excessive materialism and dominated by religious conformism, positivism and literalism. Even today, the subject of universal faith still remains in vogue as the world urgently needs voices of wisdom, such as Gibran’s, to call for the unity of humankind and for going beyond inconsequential contextual formalities in order to reach the universal, the divine.

Khalil Gibran died of cirrhosis on April 10
th
, 1931. He was still a Lebanese citizen when he died since he had always refused to be naturalized in the US despite his great love and gratitude for the country that had hosted him and made his fortune and fame. He also asked to be buried in Beirut where numerous statues, streets, public parks and museums were dedicated to his memory. In the US, he was also celebrated after his death and Miss Mary Haskell helped publish many of his other works posthumously. The latter included
The Wanderer
(1932),
Lazarus and His Beloved
(1933) and
The Garden of the Prophet
(1933) which was completed after his death by Barbara Young. Later, more collections of Gibran’s poetry were published along with many of the letters that he exchanged with Miss Haskell.

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