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In the Name of God بسم الله

Existentialism and Absurdism combined with Omnism

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  • Basic Members
Posted

I'm an existentialist. An absurdist. Even though I'm a Muslim I respect all world religions as God says in the Quran that all religions are or were once One and the same.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnism#:~:text=Omnism is the respect of,begun to redefine the term.

https://www.culturefrontier.com/existentialism-vs-absurdism/

What do you think?

  • Advanced Member
Posted (edited)

Honestly, I have toyed with this a bit myself. Sometimes I can't help but to wonder whether all these different religions exist because of different cultural interpretations of the same divine source. I mean, it doesn't make much sense that only one of them is correct while everyone else is just damned to Hell or whatever. That does not point towards a merciful god.

In short, there's a lot of things in Islam I struggle to fully grasp due to coming in from an atheistic and secular background.

Edited by JannahLM
  • Basic Members
Posted
10 hours ago, JannahLM said:

Honestly, I have toyed with this a bit myself. Sometimes I can't help but to wonder whether all these different religions exist because of different cultural interpretations of the same divine source. I mean, it doesn't make much sense that only one of them is correct while everyone else is just damned to Hell or whatever. That does not point towards a merciful god.

In short, there's a lot of things in Islam I struggle to fully grasp due to coming in from an atheistic and secular background.

I believe all religions once believed in a singular monad or God who created everything. Hindus call him Ishvar. Buddhists call him Buddha. Jews call him YHWH. Muslims call him Allah. Christians call him Jesus Christ. We all come from the same source, same Energy, same big bang split. 

Posted
17 hours ago, MuhammadKhomeini said:

I'm an existentialist. An absurdist

Salam!

How would you define existentialism & absurdism? Any idea? It is quite strange to note that a muslim is calling absurdist to himself!

17 hours ago, MuhammadKhomeini said:

I respect all world religions as God says in the Quran that all religions are or were once One and the same.

ان الدين عند الله الاسلام

(The religion with Allah is Islam)

Respecting others is a different thing, accepting them as truth is wrong. If the reason for the formation of every religion (other than Islam) is "ikhtilaf", we need to look at with whom the "ikhtilaaf" is done & what "ikhtilaaf" has been done. 

 

  • Basic Members
Posted
On 11/25/2023 at 4:10 PM, Inspector said:

Salam!

How would you define existentialism & absurdism? Any idea? It is quite strange to note that a muslim is calling absurdist to himself!

ان الدين عند الله الاسلام

(The religion with Allah is Islam)

Respecting others is a different thing, accepting them as truth is wrong. If the reason for the formation of every religion (other than Islam) is "ikhtilaf", we need to look at with whom the "ikhtilaaf" is done & what "ikhtilaaf" has been done. 

 

Existentialism and Absurdism are related in my opinion. Existentialism means to find meaning by making meaning. Absurdism is to find no meaning yet persisting. 

Most of us will burn in hell. When in hell, we'll try to find meaning in the unending suffering. Hence a Muslim can be an existential absurdist. Nihilism is devoid of the spirit.

There are truths in every religion. 

Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, MuhammadKhomeini said:

Hence a Muslim can be an existential absurdist.

A Muslims is the one who will not burn in hell. 

15 hours ago, MuhammadKhomeini said:

Most of us will burn in hell. When in hell, we'll try to find meaning in the unending suffering.

lol, Why most of us will burn in hell? Any possible reason? 

15 hours ago, MuhammadKhomeini said:

Existentialism means to find meaning by making meaning

 There could be three types of meaning
a) Coherence 
b) Significance 
c) Purpose

By "making meaning", are  you pointing towards "making an understanding" on your own? Are we even eligible of giving "true" meanings to the things? 

By the way, there are groups in existentialism, there are groups in absurdism as well as in nihilism. So while you are discussing all these terms, you need to be specific in explaining which group you belongs to. 

15 hours ago, MuhammadKhomeini said:

There are truths in every religion. 

I would say that the Truth is just One, the indivisible One. 
Whatever you are viewing as "truths" are either the mixture of truth with falsehood or either are simple falsehood. 

Your acknowledged belief system (existentialist + Absurdist) is displaying the second option mentioned by Camus i.e., philosophical suicide by pretending there’s a higher power that gives our life meaning — in other words, God.


 

Edited by Inspector
  • 2 months later...
  • Veteran Member
Posted

Mulla Sadra

 

:“In the earlier days I used to be a passionate defender of the thesis that the ‘quiddities’ are asil and ‘existence’ is i’tibari, until my Lord gave me guidance and let me see His demonstration. All of a sudden my spiritual eyes were opened and I saw with utmost clarity that the truth was just the contrary of what the philosophers in general had held. Praise be to God who, by the light of intuition, led me out of the darkness of the groundless idea and firmly established me upon the thesis which would never change in the present world and the Hereafter.... As a result (I now hold that) the ‘existences’ (wujuddat) are primary ‘realities’, while the quiddities ‘are the ‘permanent archetypes’ (a’yan thabitah) that have never smelt the fragrance of ‘existence’. The ‘existences’ are nothing but beams of light radiated by the true Light which is the absolutely self-subsistent Existence,. except that each of them is characterized by a number of essential properties and intelligible qualities. These later are the things that are known as ‘quiddities,’ “(Izutsu, “The Fundamental Structure....”pp77- 78 ).

  • Veteran Member
Posted
On 11/27/2023 at 9:32 PM, Inspector said:

@MuhammadKhomeini, I would like to know your view on notion "essence precedes the existence". This is a pure existentialist notion. 

I think he means existentialism in western philosophy sense not in Islamic philosophy distinction between essence and quiddity

 

On 11/27/2023 at 4:31 AM, MuhammadKhomeini said:

Existentialism means to find meaning by making meaning. Absurdism is to find no meaning yet persisting. 

Why persist if there is no meaning? Also these two are contradictory.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Veteran Member
Posted

From a religious standpoint, it's not possible to be both Muslim and existentialist (I include absurdism in the definition, as it shares the same ideological basis). At the end of the day, it's a matter of faith in a higher (divine) truth instead of a human (personal) truth.

It's discussed, though, that you can be an existentialist and decide to follow a religious doctrine or moral code (which is, for example, my case: I'm not technically a Muslim yet I follow many Islamic teachings and believe in God, but not in a religious coding). Existentialism itself negates the type of faith that is by itself a part of religion, a faith that negates the human agency to define the truth, build moral judgements, etc. For me, this approach made more sense than anything, but it also forced me to take distance from this approach to faith that belongs to all religions (even though not from my education, values, etc.)

Lastly, even though absurdism is shown as devoid of meaning, it's a philosophical position that was mostly developed in texts by Camus and presented as a critique, rather than a legitimate position towards life itself. His main book, L'Etranger, starts with one of the most famous starts in literature, a man who didnt know if his mother died yesterday or two days ago. And that was an example of the Absurd man. Camus was, in fact, a defender of life by confronting the Absurd. And that was not done by believing in a religion, but by actually acknowledging the existence of the Absurd yet believe in truths that are worth believing in. And it's here where I believe there is a potential and legitimate approach to religious values and teachings from an existentialist perspective heheh.

(Also hi everybody, been ages I haven't visited the forum)

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