Treasury of Kahlil Gibran

by Kahlil Gibran

  AMENA: All things in this vast universe exist in you, with you, and for you.

  NAJEEB: Then I may truthfully say that Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, is not far distant, but is found within me, the entity existing as Najeeb Rahmé!

  AMENA: All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.

  NAJEEB: (Overwhelmed by the vastness of the subject, and after a brief pause, permitting full assimilation of his instruction): I was told that you journeyed many days before you reached the heart of the desert of Rabh el Khali, and that your father’s spirit revealed itself to you and directed you in your wanderings until you reached the Golden City. If a person should desire to reach that city, need he be in the same spiritual state you possessed at that time, and is it required that he possess your wisdom in order to gain entrance into that celestial place you visited?

  AMENA: We crossed the desert and suffered the pangs of hunger and the madness of thirst and the fears of the day and the horrors of the night and the frightening silence of eternity before we saw the walls of the Golden City. But many are those who reached the city of God before us without walking one cubit, and they reveled in its beauty and brightness without sorrowing in body or spirit. Truly I say unto you that many have visited the Sacred City although they never left the places of their birth.

  (Amena Divine interrupts herself and remains silent for a moment. Then she points at the trees and myrtles about her and continues): For every seed that autumn drops into the heart of the earth, there exists a different manner of splitting the shell from the pulp; then are created the leaves, and then the flowers, and then the fruit. But regardless of the fashion in which this takes place, these plants must undertake one sole pilgrimage, and their great mission is to stand before the face of the sun.

  ZAIN (Moves gracefully back and forth, impressed by Amena as if in a supreme world. In an inspired voice he cries out prayerfully): God is great! There is no God but Allah, the Merciful, who knows our needs!

  AMENA: Allah is great … there is no God but Allah … there is nothing but Allah!

  ZAIN: (Repeats Amena’s words in a scarcely audible whisper, with fervent, visible trembling).

  NAJEEB: (Stares at Amena Divine as if in a trance, and in a strong, defiant voice says): There is no God but God!

  AMENA: (Surprised): There is no God but Allah … there is nothing but Allah. You may speak these words and remain a Christian, for a God Who is good knows of no segregations amongst words or names, and were a God to deny His blessing to those who pursue a different path to eternity, then there is no human who should offer worship.*

  NAJEEB: (Bends his head, closes his eyes and repeats Amena’s words of prayer to Allah. He raises his head, saying): I shall say the words to the God who offers me the true pathway to Him, and I shall continue to say them to Him until the end of my life, for I am in search of truth. And my prayers to God are to The God, wherever He may be and whatever He may be called. I love God … all of my life will I love God.

  AMENA: Your life has no end, and you shall live forevermore.

  NAJEEB: Who am I, and what am I, to live unto eternity?

  AMENA: You are you, and as such, you are a creature of God, and you are therefore everything.

  NAJEEB: Amena Divine, I know that the particles of which my own self is composed will remain as long as I remain, but will that thought which I call myself remain? Will this dim, new awakeness, garmented with the light slumber of dawn remain? Will these hopes and desires, sorrows and joys remain? Will these shivering fancies of my disturbed sleep, brilliant in truth’s light, remain?

  AMENA: (Raises her eyes toward heaven, as if reaching for something in the great pocket of space. In a clear, strong voice she speaks): Each thing that exists remains forever, and the very existence of existence is proof of its eternity. But without that realization, which is the knowledge of perfect being, man would never know whether there was existence or non-existence. If eternal existence is altered, then it must become more beautiful; and if it disappears, it must return with more sublime image; and if it sleeps, it must dream of a better awakening, for it is ever greater upon its rebirth.

  I feel pity toward those who admit of the eternity of the elements of which the eye is made, but at the same time doubt the eternity of the various objects of sight which employ the eye as a medium.

  I feel sympathy for the one who divides life into two parts, and at the same time places faith in one part and doubts the other.

  I am saddened by the one who gazes upon the mountains and plains upon which the sun throws its rays, and who listens to the breeze singing the song of the thin branches, and who inhales the fragrance of the flowers and the jasmine, and then says within himself, “No … what I see and hear will pass away, and what I know and feel will vanish.” This humble soul who sees and contemplates reverently the joys and sorrows about him, and then denies the perpetuity of their existence, must himself vanish like vapour in the air and disappear, for he is seeking darkness and placing his back to truth. Verily, he is a living soul denying his very existence, for he denies other of God’s existing things.

  NAJEEB: (Excited): Amena Divine, I believe in my existence, and he who listens to your words and does not believe is more the solid rock than a human in being.

  AMENA: God has placed in each soul a true guide to the great light, but man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.

  NAJEEB: Is there any light outside the body by which we can illuminate the way into our inner depths? Do we possess any power that will stir our spirits and awaken in us the realization of our living oblivion, and point the way to eternal knowledge? (He becomes silent for a few moments, apparently fearful of proceeding. Then he continues, as if overcoming his reluctance): Did not your father’s soul reveal to you the secret of the earthly imprisonment of the soul?

  AMENA: It is vain for the wayfarer to knock upon the door of the empty house. Man is standing mutely between the non-existence within him and the reality of his surroundings. If we did not possess what we have within ourselves we could not have the things we call our environs. My father’s spirit called to me when my soul called to his soul, and revealed to my outer knowledge what my inner knowledge had already known.

  Therefore, in simplicity, were it not for the hunger and thirst within me, I would not have obtained food and water from my environs; and were it not for the longing and affection within me, I would not have found the subject of my longing and affection about me in the Golden City.

  NAJEEB: Is every person able to spin a thread from the sinews of his longing and affection and attach it between his soul and a departed soul? Is there any endowed people, empowered to talk to the spirits and understand their will and purpose?

  AMENA: Between the people of eternity and the people of the earth there is a constant communication, and all comply with the will of that unseen power. Oftentimes an individual will perform an act, believing that it is born of his own free will, accord, and command, but in fact he is being guided and impelled with precision to do it. Many great men attained their glory by surrendering themselves in complete submission to the will of the spirit, employing no reluctance or resistance to its demands, as a violin surrenders itself to the complete will of a fine musician.

  Between the spiritual world and the world of substance there is a path upon which we walk in a swoon of slumber. It reaches us and we are unaware of its strength, and when we return to ourselves we find that we are carrying with our real hand
s the seeds to be planted carefully in the good earth of our daily lives, bringing forth good deeds and words of beauty. Were it not for that path between our lives and the departed lives, no prophet or poet or learned man would have appeared among the people. (Amena lowers her voice to a compelling whisper, and continues): Truly I say unto you, and the outcome of time will prove it, that there are ties between the upper world and the lower world as surely as there is a binding tie between a mother and her child. We are surrounded with an intuitive atmosphere that attracts our inner consciousness, and a knowledge that cautious our judgment, and a power that strengthens our own power. I say unto you that our doubt does not disprove or fortify our surrender to that which we doubt, and the fact of busying ourselves in self-gratification will not divert us from the accomplishment by the spirits of their purpose; and blinding ourselves to the reality of our spiritual being will not conceal our spiritual being from the eyes of the universe; and if we stop walking, we are still walking if they are walking … and if we remain motionless, we are still moving with their moving … and if we silence ourselves, we are still speaking with their voices.

  Our sleep cannot drive the influence of their awakeness from us, nor can our awakeness divert their dreams from the stages of our fancies, for we and they are two worlds embraced by one world … we and they are two spirits wrapped within one spirit … we and they are two existences united by one Supreme and Eternal Consciousness which is above all and without beginning and without ending.

  NAJEEB: (Radiant, he is now thinking and feeling along the lines of Amena Divine’s revelations): Will ever the day arrive when man will discover through scientific knowledge and experience and earthly manifestation that which the spirits have always known through God, and which our hearts have known through longing? Must we await death in order to establish the eternity of our ideal selves? Will ever the day come when we will feel with the fingers of our hands those great secrets which we now feel only with the fingers of our faith?

  AMENA: Yes, that day will come. But how ignorant are those who see, without question, the abstract existence with some of their senses, but insist upon doubting until that existence reveals itself to all their senses. Is not faith the sense of the heart as truly as sight is the sense of the eye? And how narrow is the one who hears the song of the blackbird and sees it hovering above the branches, but doubts that which he has seen and heard until he seizes the bird with his hands. Were not a portion of his senses sufficient? How strange is the one who dreams in truth of a beautiful reality, and then, when he endeavours to fashion it into form but cannot succeed, doubts the dream and blasphemes the reality and distrusts the beauty!

  How blind is the one who fancies and plans a matter in all true form and angles, and when he cannot prove it completely with superficial measurement and word proofs, believes that his idea and imagination were empty objects! But if he contemplates with sincerity and meditates upon these happenings, he will understand with conviction that his idea is as much a reality as is the bird of the sky, but that it is not yet crystallized, and that the idea is a segment of knowledge that cannot be proved with figures and words, for it is too high and too spacious to be imprisoned at that moment; too deeply imbedded in the spiritual to submit yet to the real.

  NAJEEB: (Believing, yet curious): Is there true being in all imagination, and real knowledge in every idea and fancy?

  AMENA: Verily, it is impossible for the mirror of the soul to reflect in the imagination anything which does not stand before it. It is impossible for the calm lake to show in its depth the figure of any mountain or the picture of any tree or cloud that does not exist close by the lake. It is impossible for the light to throw upon the earth a shadow of an object that has no being. Nothing can be seen, heard, or otherwise sensed unless it has actual being. When you know a thing, you believe it, and the true believer sees with his spiritual discernment that which the surface investigator cannot see with the eyes of his head, and he understands through his inner thought that which the outside examiner cannot understand with his demanding, acquired process of thought.

  The believer acquaints himself with the sacred realities through deep senses different from those used by others. A believer looks upon his senses as a great wall surrounding him, and when he walks upon the path he says, “This city has no exit, but it is perfect within.” (Amena stands, walks toward Najeeb and, after a pause, says): The believer lives for all the days and the nights, and the unfaithful live but a few hours.

  How small is the life of the person who places his hands between his face and the world, seeing naught but the narrow lines of his hands!

  How unjust to themselves are those who turn their backs to the sun, and see naught except the shadows of their physical selves upon the earth!

  NAJEEB: (Standing, in preparation for departure): Shall I tell the people that Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, is a spiritual city of dreams, and that Amena Divine reached it through longing and affection for it, and through the door of faith?

  AMENA: Tell them that Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, is a true city, existing with the same visible existence of the oceans and the mountains and the forests and the deserts, for all in eternity is real. Tell them that Amena Divine reached it after she crossed the great desert and suffered the agonies of thirst, the torture of hunger, and the sorrows and horrors of aloneness. Tell them that the Golden City was erected by the giants of the ages from the glittering elements of existence, and concealed it not from the people, but the people cornered themselves from it. And tell them that the one who loses his way before reaching Iram must cast blame upon the guide, and not upon the rough, hard road. Tell them that the one who does not light his lamp of truth will find the road dark and impassable. (Amena looks to heaven with love in her eyes, and her face emanates sweetness and peace).

  NAJEEB: (Approaches Amena slowly, with head bent low, takes her hand and whispers): It is eventide, and I must return to the dwellings of the people before darkness engulfs the road.

  AMENA: Under God’s direction, you will find your way in light.

  NAJEEB: I shall walk in the light of the great torch you have placed in my trembling hand.

  AMENA: Walk in the light of Truth, which cannot be extinguished by the tempest. (Amena looks long and intently at Najeeb, her countenance bearing the love of a mother. Then she leaves to the east, and walks amid the trees until she disappears from view).

  ZAIN: May I accompany you to the vicinity of the people?

  NAJEEB: With pleasure to me. I believed, however, that you lived close by Amena Divine. I envied you, saying within myself, “Would that I were to abide here.”

  ZAIN: We can live afar from the sun, but we cannot live close to the sun; yet, we need the sun. I come here often to be blessed and advised, and then I depart contented. (Najeeb unties the rein and, leading his horse, walks off with Zain Abedeen).

  (Curtain)

  * Bibliography: “Hadramaut—its Mysteries Unveiled,” by D. Van Der Meulen and H. Yon Wissman, Leyden, 1932. (Editor’s note)

  * The zealous Christian in the Near East is taught that it is a sin to repeat any prayer belonging to the Islamic religion. (Editor’s note.)

  THE CRUCIFIED

  (WRITTEN ON GOOD FRIDAY)

  TODAY, and on this same day of each year, man is startled from his deep slumber and stands before the phantoms of the Ages, looking with tearful eyes toward Mount Calvary to witness Jesus the Nazarene nailed on the Cross.… But when the day is over and eventide comes, human kinds return and kneel praying before the idols, erected upon every hilltop, every prairie, and every barter of wheat.

  Today, the Christian souls ride on the wing of memories and fly to Jerusalem. There they will stand in throngs, beating upon their bosoms, and staring at Him, crowned with a wreath of thorns, stretching His arms before heaven, and looking from behind the veil of Death into the depths of Life.…

  But when the curtain of night drops over the stage of the day and the brief drama is con
cluded, the Christians will go back in groups and lie down in the shadow of oblivion between the quilts of ignorance and slothfulness.

  On this one day of each year, the philosophers leave their dark caves, and the thinkers their cold cells, and the poets their imaginary arbors, and all stand reverently upon that silent mountain, listening to the voice of a young man saying of His killers, “Oh Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”

  But as dark silence chokes the voices of the light, the philosophers and the thinkers and the poets return to their narrow crevices and shroud their souls with meaningless pages of parchment.

  The women who busy themselves in the splendour of Life will bestir themselves today from their cushions to see the sorrowful woman standing before the Cross like a tender sapling before the raging tempest; and when they approach near to her, they will hear a deep moaning and a painful grief.

  The young men and women who are racing with the torrent of modern civilization will halt today for a moment, and look backward to see the young Magdalen washing with her tears the blood stains from the feet of a Holy Man suspended between Heaven and Earth; and when their shallow eyes weary of the scene they will depart and soon laugh.

  On this day of each year, Humanity wakes with the awakening of the Spring, and stands crying below the suffering Nazarene; then she closes her eyes and surrenders herself to a deep slumber. But Spring will remain awake, smiling and progressing until merged into Summer, dressed in scented golden raiment. Humanity is a mourner who enjoys lamenting the memories and heroes of the Ages.… If Humanity were possessed of understanding, there would be rejoicing over their glory. Humanity is like a child standing in glee by a wounded beast. Humanity laughs before the strengthening torrent which carries into oblivion the dry branches of the trees, and sweeps away with determination all things not fastened to strength.