This sentence advises humility before love, presenting it as a force that chooses its path rather than one that can be governed by will. Gibran's image of love directing the course of those it finds worthy inverts the ordinary assumption that the lover is the agent of the relationship. Suheil Bushrui connects this idea with the Sufi language of divine attraction that runs through Gibran's writing, and he argues that The Prophet treats human love as a reflection of a larger spiritual movement. Mikhail Naimy's biography, which describes the intensity of Gibran's own attachments, suggests that the writer experienced love as something that overtook him rather than something he could plan. Virginia Hilu's collection of letters includes passages in which Gibran writes of his feelings in precisely these terms. The sentence may be read as a counsel of patience, but it is also a theological claim about the origin of love, and commentators differ over how far the two readings can be separated. The wording is verifiable in the English text of 1923.
Commentary
This sentence advises humility before love, presenting it as a force that chooses its path rather than one that can be governed by will. Gibran's image of love directing the course of those it finds worthy inverts the ordinary assumption that the lover is the agent of the relationship. Suheil Bushrui connects this idea with the Sufi language of divine attraction that runs through Gibran's writing, and he argues that The Prophet treats human love as a reflection of a larger spiritual movement. Mikhail Naimy's biography, which describes the intensity of Gibran's own attachments, suggests that the writer experienced love as something that overtook him rather than something he could plan. Virginia Hilu's collection of letters includes passages in which Gibran writes of his feelings in precisely these terms. The sentence may be read as a counsel of patience, but it is also a theological claim about the origin of love, and commentators differ over how far the two readings can be separated. The wording is verifiable in the English text of 1923.