Abstract:

Death is a fact that creates unknown and deep anxieties for most people. If death did not exist, much of what people create artistically might not exist, either, representing as it sometimes does what lies in the artist’s soul. The fear of not existing leads people to take steps towards being existent, constant, and permanent, such as the creation of works. Existential psychology shares the same opinion with Islamic mysticism about finding death important, but the respective reasons are very different. Existential theories state that it is not possible to understand life without accepting the fact of death, that death is the most important fact that makes life meaningful, and that it is not possible to leave death only to those who are dying (Yalom, 2001). In this way of finding death important, it can be said that Islamic mysticism has similarities with existential theorists. Existentialists state that confronting death—meaning coming across the fact of death and accepting the truth—is important to create a meaningful life, and they evaluate death as a meaningful fact for life. A similar view that links life and the meaningfulness of death arises from different rationales between the two philosophies. To understand the main difference between these two views is to understand the value of life for each opinion. The value of life for Sufis may not be the same as for existentialists. To know how death has different meanings for different cultures and beliefs is important. It is valuable to give as an example how Sufis experience this perception and how death does not always create anxiety.

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