Sep 12, 2009 03:33 PM
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(Updated Sep 13, 2009 11:01 AM)
They look only at the surface of objects without knowing their secrets. They pass their verdicts with ignorance, and judge with blindness, making the criminal and the innocent, the good and the bad, equal. Woe to those who prosecute and judge the people.These words of Kahlil Gibran rightly sum up the human nature. He has expressed these thoughts of his in Spirits Rebellious. Being a rebel myself, I could empathise with the narrator/author.
Kahlil uses three stories each independent of the other to put his rebellious thoughts across.
Madame Rose Hanie :It is a story of a woman named Rose Hanie married to a rich man, Rashid who has given her every materialistic thing but his attention and pure love. She wakes up one day to realize that love has crept on her unaware. She leaves all the riches behind her to lead a life of poverty but full of true love with her loved one. Will the world rejoice on her union with her true love or call her an adulteress? Would they pity her husband who thought of her nothing but a prized possession? Will they blame her husband too or she has to have all the mud slung on her?
The author meets Rose and listens to her side of the story. She left Rashid to end her miseries and find happiness. Wasn’t she entitled to happiness or should she have remained with her husband who possessed her body while her soul yearned for another man?
After meeting Rose Hanie, the author is plagued with many thoughts. "Is it permissible for a woman to buy her happiness with her husband's misery?" And my soul added, "Is it lawful for a man to enslave his wife's affection when he realizes he will never possess it?"
The Cry Of The Graves :The author happens to see the justice met out by the Emir. People meekly accept the injustice in the name of justice met out to them. Did they have the power to confront the Emir? Did the three who were sentenced to death deserve such a dastardly punishment?Was their crime so severe? The author again wondered about death and a court more supreme than the one of the Emir.
The next day the author happens to visit the field where three corpses lay. He mourned for them as the previous day their body was breathing and this morning it turned into corpses. That visit was enlightening one for him. He came across a woman who came and buried the young man who was killed as he saved her from the clutches of a leery Emir’s officer. Death was his reward for saving a woman’s honour. Next came a man who covered the naked body of a woman whom he loved and she was accused of adultery while he was left scotfree.. Lastly came a frail woman who with great difficulty got the corpse down, the dead man was none other than her husband who committed a theft to ease the hunger of his starving children. Each of the visitor planted some symbol on the graves denoting bravery and love.
The author tried finding justification to the punishment given out by the Emir but he found the Emir more guilty. He committed crimes and called them nobility.
Even the nature hates submission, to sum up - The sun disappeared behind the horizon as if tiring of the world's troubles and loathing the people's submission.
Khalil The Heretic : A human hand drove me into desperation and a human hand rescued me; how severe man is, and how merciful man is!
This is the story of a monk called Khalil, who is expelled from the monastery and is left to die in the tempest. His fault was that he preached to the monks to follow the righteous path. He is rescued by two poor women and he finds shelter in their home. The word about him reaches to the authorities and he is made to appear before the court. He addressess the public as his jury and leaves his fate in their hand. The people realized their collective power and strived to better their lives.
