The Prophet

The Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran's best-known work. The Prophet has been translated into over 100 different languages, making it one of the most translated books in history, as well as one of the best-selling books of all time. It has never been out of print.

In the book, the prophet Almustafa who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years is about to board a ship that will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses many issues of life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.