Book Review: The Vision: Reflections on the Way of the Soul by Kahlil Gibran

The version of this book which I read has been translated by Juan R. I. Cole, with an introduction by Robin Waterfield. Gibran says: “Human beings unite in destroying the temples of the spirit and cooperate in building the edifices of the body”. At another place Gibran says: “I love you when you bow in mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit”. Further in the book the author writes: “Egotism, my brother, was the origin of blind competition, and competition generated group loyalty, and group loyalty founded political power, which in turn became a motive for strife and enslavement”. In the chapter my friend Gibran says: “Did you but know, my destitute friend, that the poverty that sentences you to wretchedness is precisely what inspires you with a knowledge of justice and allows you to perceive the essence of life, then you would be content with the destiny ordained by God”. In the same chapter he adds: “Coming generation will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes”.

In the chapter titled ‘The Philosophy of Logic’ Gibran writes that: “The beginning of wisdom is knowledge of the self”. At another place in the book the author mentions: “No, my brother, do not make inferences about the reality of a man on the basis of appearances, and do not take some saying or some deed of his as a token of his innermost essence”. In one of the ending chapters titled Vision, Gibran is of the view that: “I saw religion buried in the depths of a book while delusions took its place. I saw human beings condemn patience as cowardice, label forbearance laziness, and call kindness fear. I saw intruders at the table of good manners put on airs, while the invited guests remained silent. I saw wealth as a web of iniquity in the hands of a wastrel and as a motive for the people’s hatred in the hands of a miser; and in the hands of a sage I never saw wealth”.

This work of Kahlil Gibran addresses issues of close-mindedness, hypocrisy in society, and unjust politics. He creates his own ‘Anthem of Humanity’ by weaving together understandings from Buddhism, Eastern Christianity, Islam, American Transcendentalism and folklore of native Lebanon.