Kahlil Gibran and the Master
bahaistories.com archive · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Kahlil Gibran was a celebrated Lebanese poet and painter who happened to live across the street from Juliet Thompson, who knew him quite well. He worked on an Arab newspaper which left him free to paint and write. He read Juliet all his books while they were still in manuscript. Gibran told her that when he wrote The Son of Man he thought of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá all through, and that he was going to write another book with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the center. Gibran learned about the Faith from Juliet, and got hold of some of the Arabic writings of Bahá’u’lláh, and said it was the most stupendous literature that ever was written.
When Juliet told him that the Master was coming, he asked if she would request the Master to sit for him. The Master gave him one hour, at 6:30 one morning. Juliet said, “He made an outstanding head. It doesn’t look like the Master—very faint likeness. Great power through the shoulders. A great radiance in the face.”
Gibran adored the Master and would often come to Juliet’s house to see Him. After the Master left he settled down to writing his books. He talked about the Master often, “most sympathetically and most lovingly,” but he could not accept an intermediary for himself; he wanted his own direct contact with God.
Years later Gibran went to the Bahá’í Center when the Master’s motion picture was going to be shown. When he saw the Master on the screen, he began to sob. Juliet recalled: “We had asked him to speak a few words that night. When the time came for him to speak, he controlled himself and jumped up on the platform and then, my dear, still weeping before us all he said: ‘I declare that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the Manifestation of God for this day!’ Of course he got it wrong—but….” Afterwards he took her two hands and said, “You have opened for me a door tonight.”
He was deeply moved by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, even though he did not understand the Master’s station. As Marzieh Gail’s note to Juliet’s account explains, Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb are the two Manifestations of God for today; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the Exemplar and Interpreter of the Bahá’í Faith.
Sources: “Juliet Remembers Gibran,” as told to Marzieh Gail, World Order, Summer 1978 (vol. 12, no. 4), pp. 29–31; Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, p. 75
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: khalil-gibran).
Cite this story
Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/khalil-gibran
Record yourself reading this story
Recording stays on this device only. Nothing is uploaded.
Related stories
No Taxes in the Kingdom of God
In New York on 13 April 1912 a young single-taxer asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá what message to take to his friends. The Master laughed and told him that in the Kingdom of God there is plenty of land and no taxes.
The Peace Society Meeting at the Hotel Astor
On 13 May 1912, ill with a high fever, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá still went to speak at the New York Peace Society’s meeting at the Hotel Astor, telling Juliet Thompson that He worked by the confirmations of the Holy Spirit.
Quarters for the Bowery Mission
Before speaking at New York’s Bowery Mission in April 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had two thousand-franc notes changed into quarters, and He pressed a gift of silver into the hand of each man there.
You Make Me Laugh
‘Abdu’l-Bahá loved laughter. Once He laughed so heartily that His turban became disarranged; He told Juliet Thompson and May Maxwell that they rested Him, and He could not tell one joke for laughing.