Hossam Badrawi Official Website
“Great men made conscience.”
Hossam Badrawi
Continuing to mention the extent of the influence of those to whom I dedicate my book “An Invitation to Think”, I am writing today about a character that all of my family and friends around me say that I do not stop referring to the words of its owner in my conversations with them, and I repeat some of his sentences, which indicates the depth of my impact on its meanings .. He is Gibran Khalil Jubran.
His book from which I drew a lot is “The Prophet”, which he wrote in English at the beginning of the twentieth century, and more than forty translations were translated into Arabic, the best and sweetest of which, in my view, was the translation of Dr. Tharwat Okasha.
says d. Akasha about him is a juicer of pain, experience and ordeal, formulated with beauty and wisdom.
“Gibran” was honest with himself, and his life, his feelings, his disturbances, his conscience, his fear, the harshness of the circumstances around him, and the bitterness of his life were running on his pen and feather. Perhaps my passion for learning to draw at the age of sixty was influenced by him, to add paintings to my words that complement their meanings, as Gibran used to do, as his brush was his scepter after his pen.
Gibran says, in one of his most beautiful judgments about marriage, and I am convinced and repeat:
“You were born together, and together you are…
But, let there be spaces between you.
Let each of you love the other, but do not make love a chain.
Rather, make it a flowing sea between the shores of your souls.
And let them rise together.. but without sticking together..
Let one of you fill his companion’s cup, but do not drink from one cup.
Let each of you give the other from his loaf, and beware of meeting on one loaf.
Sing.. and dance.. and have fun together, but let each one be alone..
The columns of the temple are based on separate..
And the strings of the harp are stretched, even if they are pulled apart.
Gibran says about children, which is the wisdom of dealing with young people as well, whether we are parents or teachers, which penetrated my heart and is still systematic in thinking:
“Your children, what are your children?
They were born with a nostalgia for life itself
How much do they come to life, but not from you
And if they live in your care, then what are they your property..
You may house their bodies, not their souls.
Don’t try to make them like you, but try to be like them
For life does not return to backwards.. nor does it slow down when yesterday.
And he sings, through the words of the Prophet in his book, what made me understand a different meaning of giving that penetrates my soul, saying:
“You give little when you give of what you have
If you give from yourself, you give right.
Do you have nothing but things that you take care of and guard, lest you need them tomorrow?
Is the fear of need other than the need itself?
“It is nice to give to someone who asks of you… and it is more beautiful to give to someone who does not ask you, and you have realized his need.”
“How often do we say to pour myself into giving, but I only give to those who deserve it.
This is not what the trees in your garden say, nor the flowers in your garden, nor the herds in your pasture
It is given in order to live, because abstaining from giving is the way to perish.
Then he says: “Who are you that people reveal to you the hidden secrets of their chests and throw away the robe of pride from them, so that you see from them naked destinies and pride expended?
Look first: You deserve to be purified, and to be a tool for giving??.
The truth is that life is what gives life, and you, who think you are a giver, are only a witness to that.
I can almost see the genius of Gibran in the Mustafa’s dialogue with his people when he says about clothes:
“Do not forget that modesty is a shield that protects you from the looks of people of defilement, so if the defilement is removed, then what remains but the touch of your bodies and your sense of the beauty of God’s breeze?”
For Gibran, love is considered as a partnership, spiritual harmony, and being. Some researchers have given Gibran’s concept of love a special name, namely, Gibran’s love. Women had a major role in his life, but rather the formation of his intellectual and artistic personality, and the merging of feelings of love, friendship, and an intimate meeting at a distance between him and Mai Ziada – whom he had never met physically, and despite that united intellectually and spiritually, love and friendship – was an inspiring matter..and perhaps my vision The friendship between a man and a woman has been shaped by my life experiences, such as what Gibran describes, and I said about that, describing my philosophy: “The beauty of friendship with a woman is that there is no blame in her and there is no need to justify an act or absence.”
Gibran says, and I see him in my relationships with my friends: “A fake friend is like a shadow, it walks behind me when I am in the sun, and it disappears when I am in the dark.”
“Save up for your friend the best of yourself, and if he has the right to know the ups and downs of your life, let him also know the ups and downs of it.”
“And what kind of friend is this that you only seek to spend your free time with? The friend was not found to fill the emptiness of your soul, but rather to fill your needs, and to mix the sweetness of friendship with laughter, joy and happiness.”
In his writings, “Gibran” followed two directions, one of which takes power and revolts against the Salafist rules in religion, and the other loves to enjoy a pure life, and expresses both directions together, as he expressed in his poem “Processions”, which was sung by the Lebanese singer Fayrouz: “Give me the flute and sing, so we sang the secret of eternity And the groaning of the flute remains after existence perishes.”
Gibran interacted with the issues of his time, the most important of which was his revolution against Arab dependence on the Ottoman Empire, which he fought in his books and letters. Given his Christian background, Gibran was keen to clarify his position that he respected Islam and wished for its glory to return, and was against the politicization of religion, whether Islamic or Christian.
In this regard, Gibran wrote, in an article he described as a message “to Muslims from a Christian poet”:
I hate the Ottoman Empire, but I love the Turks, and I burn with jealousy over the nations sleeping under the Ottoman flag.
I do not like the disease, but I love the sick body. I hate the paralysis, but I love the affected parts.
He says, “Religions, despite their differences, are one religion.”
He used to keep Jesus in half of his chest, and Muhammad in the other half, whispering to every citizen living in the Arab world: “You are my brother, and I love you. I love you prostrating in your mosque, kneeling in your temple, and praying in your church. You and I have one religion, and the branches of this a
Hossam Badrawi
Continuing to mention the extent of the influence of those to whom I dedicate my book “An Invitation to Think”, I am writing today about a character that all of my family and friends around me say that I do not stop referring to the words of its owner in my conversations with them, and I repeat some of his sentences, which indicates the depth of my impact on its meanings .. He is Gibran Khalil Jubran.
His book from which I drew a lot is “The Prophet”, which he wrote in English at the beginning of the twentieth century, and more than forty translations were translated into Arabic, the best and sweetest of which, in my view, was the translation of Dr. Tharwat Okasha.
says d. Akasha about him is a juicer of pain, experience and ordeal, formulated with beauty and wisdom.
“Gibran” was honest with himself, and his life, his feelings, his disturbances, his conscience, his fear, the harshness of the circumstances around him, and the bitterness of his life were running on his pen and feather. Perhaps my passion for learning to draw at the age of sixty was influenced by him, to add paintings to my words that complement their meanings, as Gibran used to do, as his brush was his scepter after his pen.
Gibran says, in one of his most beautiful judgments about marriage, and I am convinced and repeat:
“You were born together, and together you are…
But, let there be spaces between you.
Let each of you love the other, but do not make love a chain.
Rather, make it a flowing sea between the shores of your souls.
And let them rise together.. but without sticking together..
Let one of you fill his companion’s cup, but do not drink from one cup.
Let each of you give the other from his loaf, and beware of meeting on one loaf.
Sing.. and dance.. and have fun together, but let each one be alone..
The columns of the temple are based on separate..
And the strings of the harp are stretched, even if they are pulled apart.
Gibran says about children, which is the wisdom of dealing with young people as well, whether we are parents or teachers, which penetrated my heart and is still systematic in thinking:
“Your children, what are your children?
They were born with a nostalgia for life itself
How much do they come to life, but not from you
And if they live in your care, then what are they your property..
You may house their bodies, not their souls.
Don’t try to make them like you, but try to be like them
For life does not return to backwards.. nor does it slow down when yesterday.
And he sings, through the words of the Prophet in his book, what made me understand a different meaning of giving that penetrates my soul, saying:
“You give little when you give of what you have
If you give from yourself, you give right.
Do you have nothing but things that you take care of and guard, lest you need them tomorrow?
Is the fear of need other than the need itself?
“It is nice to give to someone who asks of you… and it is more beautiful to give to someone who does not ask you, and you have realized his need.”
“How often do we say to pour myself into giving, but I only give to those who deserve it.
This is not what the trees in your garden say, nor the flowers in your garden, nor the herds in your pasture
It is given in order to live, because abstaining from giving is the way to perish.
Then he says: “Who are you that people reveal to you the hidden secrets of their chests and throw away the robe of pride from them, so that you see from them naked destinies and pride expended?
Look first: You deserve to be purified, and to be a tool for giving??.
The truth is that life is what gives life, and you, who think you are a giver, are only a witness to that.
I can almost see the genius of Gibran in the Mustafa’s dialogue with his people when he says about clothes:
“Do not forget that modesty is a shield that protects you from the looks of people of defilement, so if the defilement is removed, then what remains but the touch of your bodies and your sense of the beauty of God’s breeze?”
For Gibran, love is considered as a partnership, spiritual harmony, and being. Some researchers have given Gibran’s concept of love a special name, namely, Gibran’s love. Women had a major role in his life, but rather the formation of his intellectual and artistic personality, and the merging of feelings of love, friendship, and an intimate meeting at a distance between him and Mai Ziada – whom he had never met physically, and despite that united intellectually and spiritually, love and friendship – was an inspiring matter..and perhaps my vision The friendship between a man and a woman has been shaped by my life experiences, such as what Gibran describes, and I said about that, describing my philosophy: “The beauty of friendship with a woman is that there is no blame in her and there is no need to justify an act or absence.”
Gibran says, and I see him in my relationships with my friends: “A fake friend is like a shadow, it walks behind me when I am in the sun, and it disappears when I am in the dark.”
“Save up for your friend the best of yourself, and if he has the right to know the ups and downs of your life, let him also know the ups and downs of it.”
“And what kind of friend is this that you only seek to spend your free time with? The friend was not found to fill the emptiness of your soul, but rather to fill your needs, and to mix the sweetness of friendship with laughter, joy and happiness.”
In his writings, “Gibran” followed two directions, one of which takes power and revolts against the Salafist rules in religion, and the other loves to enjoy a pure life, and expresses both directions together, as he expressed in his poem “Processions”, which was sung by the Lebanese singer Fayrouz: “Give me the flute and sing, so we sang the secret of eternity And the groaning of the flute remains after existence perishes.”
Gibran interacted with the issues of his time, the most important of which was his revolution against Arab dependence on the Ottoman Empire, which he fought in his books and letters. Given his Christian background, Gibran was keen to clarify his position that he respected Islam and wished for its glory to return, and was against the politicization of religion, whether Islamic or Christian.
In this regard, Gibran wrote, in an article he described as a message “to Muslims from a Christian poet”:
I hate the Ottoman Empire, but I love the Turks, and I burn with jealousy over the nations sleeping under the Ottoman flag.
I do not like the disease, but I love the sick body. I hate the paralysis, but I love the affected parts.
He says, “Religions, despite their differences, are one religion.”
He used to keep Jesus in half of his chest, and Muhammad in the other half, whispering to every citizen living in the Arab world: “You are my brother, and I love you. I love you prostrating in your mosque, kneeling in your temple, and praying in your church. You and I have one religion, and the branches of this a
