The Prophet

After twelve years in the city of Orphalese, the prophet Almustafa is preparing to leave, waiting for the ship that will carry him back to the land of his birth. Before he goes, he speaks to the people who have gathered to see him off. What he offers them is not new knowledge but something closer to a reminder: words of what, as he tells them, they already know in thought, half asleep within their own understanding. It is this quality, of feeling both wise and familiar at once, that has kept readers returning to Gibran's book since it first appeared.