A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran

 

Khalil Gibran was a visionary who hailed from Lebanon. His land was beautiful and the people simple and pure. But it was a land that was ruled by corruption, and he saw this. The church and the local despots and mukhtars keep the people under lock and key. The church keeps the villagers chained to traditions that enforce their slavery. Women are given to rich older men and are locked in marriages with people they no longer care about. The church and the landowner keep the people enslaved. Working in partnership the landowners and village chiefs work the villagers to death all for their own profits. Khalil Gibran wrote about this problem and spoke about it at length in his poetry and prose. The church excommunicated him for it and he eventually came to US to live in exile.

While I cannot remember all the names of everything I have read.  The stories and poems illustrate their point. On story tells about a monk who is excommunicated from a monastery. His crime was preaching pure Christianity. Giving charity to the poor and encouraging freedom of though. Once expelled from the monastery he finds refuge with a widow and her daughter. But no sooner has he found refuge when the local mukhtar and priest find him and lock him up. The exiled monk speaks his truth and eventually the townspeople free him.

 

In another story three people are tried and condemned for various offenses. The first offence is for a woman accused of adultery. Her body is left to rot in the woods. What happened is that she was in love with another man. He went out of town for a day and her father married her off to an older more established man. Her old lover came to visit her one last time when the husband walked in. She was accused of adultery and killed. The second person killed the sultan’s soldier with his own sword and for that he was sentenced to death. A woman came by his body after it was left for the beasts to devour it. She buried the body and explained the story. The sultans’ soldiers had detained her family and were about to do bad thinks to the women folk.  He bravely stepped up and defended her. The third case involves a man stealing from a monastery. His wife comes by to bury him after his death sentence. She explains that he stole from the monastery to feed his family. He asked the church for help, but no charity was forthcoming.

Khalil Gibran also touches upon reincarnation and the deities of old. In one story there is a priest, dedicated to Ishtar the goddess of love. As he watches his love die she gives him a promise that they will meet again in another life. They do so. A young shepherd meets a young maiden and the two fall in love. It is in a lovers embrace that their memories return.

The poet loved his country, and he loved his people. It was unfortunate that Lebanon was run by corrupt leaders and supported by a greedy church that k new how to take and not to give. The leadership and the church worked in tandem to keep the people oppressed and have them be subservient. Marriage customs were outdated and oppressive as well. Often time a father would marry his daughter off to an older more well-established gentleman. The father cared about his business contacts and not about the daughter’s health and wellbeing. This led to a situation where in the woman had to remain locked in a marriage, she was not happy in. In many of his writings this young woman was or is in love with a nother lover closer to her age. For his writings and point of view Khalil Gibran was excommunicated by the church.