Question

On Buying and Selling

BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

And a merchant said, Speak to us of
Buying and Selling.
And he answered and said:
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 market place 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 labour.
To such men you should say,
"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 fashioned of dreams, is raiment
and food for your soul.

And before you leave the market place,
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 till the
needs of the least of you are satisfied.

What gives a sense of abundance and satisfaction to the merchants according to the poem on buying and selling

Answer 1

In Kahlil Gibran's poem, a sense of abundance and satisfaction arises from trading with love, kindness, and justice, reflecting philosophies that prioritize equitable exchange and mutual consent while recognizing the intrinsic value of different forms of labor.

Step-by-step explanation:

To understand what gives a sense of abundance and satisfaction to merchants in Kahlil Gibran's poem "On Buying and Selling", one must delve into the idea that it is not merely the act of trade itself, but the quality of the transactions made. Gibran emphasizes that exchanging gifts of the earth and goods should be done with love and kind justice to yield satisfaction and prevent the rise of greed and hunger among people.

He advocates for a compassionate marketplace where talents and labor are equally valued, where the singer and dancer are as important as those who work with tangible materials, and where everyone leaves the marketplace with their needs met.

This sentiment reflects earlier philosophical understandings of trade, such as the guidance from Sunan Abi Dawud and Ibn Majah which suggests that transactions should only be made with mutual consent and that one should not sell what they do not possess. Also, the philosophies of Ibn Khaldun and Thomas Mun express the value of foreign trade while Adam Smith critiques the mercantile system for its neglect of consumer interests. Ambrose Bierce's views on money further reinforce the notion that its only value lies in the exchange for goods and services, emphasizing the human side of economics.