The Prophet is a book of 26 poetic essays written in English by the Lebanese artist, philosopher and writer Khalil Gibran. It was originally published in 1923 and it is Gibran"s best known work. The Prophet has been translated into over forty different languages. The prophet, Al-Mustafa who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses many issues of life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.