A Comparative Study of the Meaning of Life in the Atheistic Existentialism and the Quranic View of Allameh Tabataba’i

Ebrahim  Fahli

doi:10.18502/qjcr.v23i91.16936

Ebrahim Fahli Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Sayyed Jamaleddin Asadabadi University, Asadabad, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/qjcr.v23i91.16936

Keywords: Meaning of life, atheistic existentialism, Quranic view, Allameh Tabataba’i

Abstract

Aim: The current research aimed to conduct a comparative study of the meaning of life in atheistic existentialism and the Quranic view of Allameh Tabataba’i.

Methods: This research was carried out with a qualitative approach and the thematic analysis method of Brown and Clark and the comparative method of Brady. The research population includes all the documents, written sources and articles related to the subject and the purposeful sampling method and the adequacy of the sample size of the studied documents was obtained through the data saturation method. The research tool was document analysis, whose validity was examined by the Lincoln and Goba method concerning four criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability, and the data were analyzed by the thematic analysis method.

Results: In the analysis of the themes, it was found that the atheistic existentialism and the Qur'anic view of Allameh Tabataba'i could be investigated and recognized with 3 themes respectively in the fields of epistemology, cosmology and anthropology.

Conclusion: The results indicated a consensus between the two perspectives on humans' existential need for the meaning of life and the emergence of a psychological crisis in case of any disruption in its realization. Atheistic existentialism and the Quranic view of Allameh Tabataba’i were significantly different in the possibility of meaning achievement, the ways of acquiring meaning, and whether to find or construct meaning (epistemology), the purposefulness of the world and the existence of the resurrection (cosmology), and human purpose in the world, the pre-birth essence, existential anxiety, and the existence of the soul and the inherent value of human (anthropology). These fundamental differences can be attributed to the human- and God-centered perspectives in atheistic existentialism and the Quranic view of Allameh Tabataba’i, respectively.