Kahlil Gibran: On Buying and Selling

This is Chapter 11 from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. The prophet, Al Mustafa, has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is joyfully about to board a ship which will carry him home. To his surprise, he is stopped by a group of people who love him and are deeply saddened by his soon departure. They asked him to share wisdom before leaving on topics such as life and the human condition. Here a merchant aked wisdom on Buying and Selling.

Transcript

Buying and Selling From the Prophet by Khalil Gibran To you the earth yields her fruit,

And you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.

Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice,

It will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

When in the marketplace,

You toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards,

Meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices,

Invoke then the Master Spirit of the earth to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value,

And suffer not the barren-handed to take part in your transactions,

Who would sell their words for your labor.

To such men you should say,

Come,

Come with us to the field,

Or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net,

For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us.

And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players,

Buy of their gifts also,

For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense,

And that which they bring,

Though fashion of dreams,

Is raiment and food for your soul.

And before you leave the marketplace,

See that no one has gone his way with empty hands,

For the Master Spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind until the needs of the least of you are satisfied.