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The Search for Meaning of Life: Existentialism, Communication, and Islam

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The Search for Meaning of Life: Existentialism, Communication, and Islam The Search for 0eaning of Life: Existentialism, Communication, and ,slam 2. HasEiansyah ABSTRACT 0aNna merupaNan hal sangat penting dalam Nehidupan manusia. Tanpa maNna, Nehidupan aNan tanpa arah dan penuh Negelisahan. 0aNna hidup dapat dicari melalui nilai-nilai Nreatif, nilai-nilai pengalaman, nilai-nilai cara EersiNap, NomuniNasi dan partisipasi, pemahaman diri, dan pemahaman aNan aMaran agama. ,slam menawarNan aspeN nomatif Eagi pencapaian hidup EermaNn lewat pemEersihan diri, Nontemplasi, serta Nomitmen pada Neilmuan dan NemasyaraNatan. ,ntroduction was ever upset deeply, while he had a good posi- tion and future. He needed something else, that :e face our life every day. :e sleep, wake was a high meaningful life, which could make him up, eat, work, take part in communication, have a aEsolutely satisfied. He gave up all his position. rest, and so on. Events come to us and we pay Then, he was lost himself in a realm of mysticism attention to them, even involve ourselves in them, (tashawwuf). In this world, he felt a highest satis- or ignore them. In other cases, we need some- faction and a real significant life. thing, we seek it, we get it or not, then we feel At first glance it seems difficult to understand happy or sad. It takes place automatically and why, for instance, someone is very interested in routinely. :e are as though in a circle of situation. climEing up mountain, while another is pleased to However in reality, life is not as simple as that. contriEute most of his possession to others and Each of us is not always involved passively in a he chooses to lead an extremely soEer life. Each flow of routine. :e also deal with life actively. man has a satisfaction of life in various ways and There is time when someone has a unique experi- in different areas. ence that causes him very happy. He creates a Such a circumstance of human life is different new situation, even cuts through a Ereakthrough from that of animal life. in life radically, either succeeds or fails and then 2ne of the differences Eetween a human Ee- he is satisfied. But there is another time when a ing and an animal is the fact that a human Eeing person can‘t enMoy what he encounters. He is doesn‘t only strive to gain Eiological and physical Eored with, for instance, a high rank of his occu- needs or follow a current of routine life. The pation. All of he possesses doesn‘t give him hap- struggle that the animal does is Must to fulfill its piness. His heart is empty. He is restless. He Eiological and physical needs, so that its species leads an aimless existence. In other words, he is in can survive in the universe. Besides the struggle alienation. He questions whatever he has had or for survival, the human Eeing also strives for more done. There is something else he is eager to get, significant matters other than Must to alive. That is and it is mayEe clear or not. the meaning of life. ,mam Ghazali, one of leading 0uslim figures, This paper will descriEe the meaning of life in 2. HasEiansyah. The Search for 0eaning of /ife: Existentialism, Communication, and ,slam 249 the perspectives of existentialism, communication, high tower at night. He was surrounded Ey an and ,slam. Existentialism will Ee elaEorated much unlimited extreme darkness. The only one light more than others. This paper also will explain how was in the top of tower. Suddenly a Eird got in that to get the meaning of life. tower through one of its windows. The Eird flut- tered inside around the light. Soon afterwards, Existentialism the Eird went out through another window. The Eird lost in the darkness. Existentialism is one of philosophy schools. The aEove description constitutes a metaphor The prominent figures who popularized existen- of human life. :e are like that Eird. Human Eeing tialism were -ean-Paul Sartre and AlEert Camus. comes from the darkness, makes a move around Soren AaEye .ierkegaard, .arl -aspers, 0artin the light in the world, and then enters the dark- Heidegger, 0aurice 0erleau-Ponty, 9ictor Emil ness again. :e did not exist Eefore, suddenly we Frankl, Friedrich :ilhelm 1ietzsche, were also the are here in the world without our agreement. Then, existentialism figures who impressively developed we have to finish all with death, and are swallowed this school of philosophy, although some of them Ey the non-existence. So, what is the meaning of denied to Ee categorized as existentialists. life like that" :hat do we live here for" It is as if Existentialism focuses on concrete man, that Must our destiny to live in this universe. :e were is man as an existence (3urwantana et al., 1991:11). never asNed to consult how, where, when we would Human existence is descriEed Ey existentialism in Ee Eorn Eefore. :e couldn‘t avoid it. In fact, we some topics, those are Eeing and non-being, Ee- have Eeen here, walking in a small hole of a huge ing-in-the-world, authentic and unauthentic exist- universe. :e are like a drop among wide ocean ence, self-consciousness, freedom and responsi- even far smaller than it. :e also live in a very Eility, alienation, and death (.oswara, 1987:9-18; short range of time compared with the age of this Corey, 1988). ,t‘s impossiEle to explain all of them universe. Before we were Eorn there was a very here in a short description. So, here this philoso- long long time and after we are no more, there will phy will Ee descriEed in a simple explanation. Ee a very long long time, too. :e are very small, Existence and Restlessness of 0an we have no meaning, indeed. According to existentialism, people are dis- Existentialism elucidates human Eeing as a turEed Ey their existence. 0an often questions uniTue creature that is fully aware of his existence. what for he is Eorn and what the meaning of life is. The way man exists is different from other crea- Because of these questions, he is restless. If he tures (Tafsir, 1990:192). The sun exists, the world finds a significant thing in his life, his restlessness exists, stones exist, coconut trees exist, cow ex- will Ee less. ists, air exists; however, the inexistence is differ- The question: —what is the meaning of life"“ ent from the existence of human Eeings. 0an isn‘t or —what do human Eeings live in the world for"“, like other creatures or matters that Must exist or is often troubles tranquility of our mind. This is an alive in the world. 0an exists in the world and he existential Tuestion. The trouble like this is a uni- encounters the world as well. He realizes himself versal restlessness. For escaping from the rest- and oEMects that he deals with. He wants to under- lessness, man strives to find an exact purpose in stand everything he experiences and tries to rec- life and creates a value that will give a meaning to ognize his environment. He is a subMect and a his life. center of his activity. He is Eoth a player of life stage and a seeker of identity and meaning. 4ual- Freedom and Responsibility ity of man‘s existence depends on how he fulfills his life with any activities and the meaning he gets. :e are forced to accept our lives in the world. AlEert Camus descriEes human Eeing as a Then, we are free. :e have freedom. Sartre Caligula story. Caligula climEed up the top of a (1977:531) writes, —... , say that man is condemned 250 0ED,AT2R, 9ol. 3 1o.2 2002 to Ee free. Condemned, Eecause he did not create nothing else than the ensemEle of his acts, noth- himself, yet, in other respects he is free; Eecause, ing else than his life“ (p. 533). 0an is nothing once thrown into the world, he is responsiEle for other than the numEer of his activities. He is how everything he does.“ In connection with the opin- to manage his life. Fromm (1988:38) says that there ion of Sartre, Frankl explains that the freedom of is no meaning for life except the meaning that man man, in any case, is limited. ,t‘s impossiEle for man gives to his life Ey developing power and living to extricate himself from Eiological, sociological, productively. 0an decides and develops his own and historical conditions. He can‘t avoid them. existence (Muthahhari, 1993:60). Therefore, it‘s The freedom of man is not freedom from those imperative that someone has to find the meaning- conditions, Eut it is the freedom to take a stand ful life in activities. It is —sinful“ for man who and self detachment. ,n other words, man has free- doesn‘t develop his potential in a chance he has, dom to decide an attitude to any condition. He and doesn‘t perform on his life tasks as well as he possesses freedom to surpass any determinant, can. This condition is called as —an existential so he can enter a new dimension of their lives (cf. sin“ (see: Corey, 1988:55). .oeswara, 1992:47-48 and Bastaman, 1994:15). At this freedom, man endeavors to Ee —fully- Someone is free to choose a kind of life whatever human“. -aspers says, —To fail to Ee human would he wants, and he is not free not to choose. His life mean to slip into nothingness. :hat man is and is his choice. :e can not make someone to Ee- can Eecome is a fundamental question for man“ come a kind of man that‘s not his choice Eecause (Levi, 1959:399).
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