عاطفه قاضی زاهدی

In this modern and civilized contemporary era, there are various spiritualist movements and schools claim to satisfy the transcendent nature of man. They are often in opposition to the divine religions and seek to marginalize them. These movements have been emerged and developed in an all-humanist context, and they have a number of epistemological, anthropological, and ontological foundations. In order to prove their ineffectiveness in responding to the thirst of the spiritually thirsty human being, it must be first examined and meticulously criticized their foundations. One of the most important anthropological foundations of secular spirituality is individualism, which, by focusing on the desires and inclinations of the individual, seeks him within the search for the entire truth, and reject other external authority such as divine revelation and prophets. The basis saying that the spiritual behavior of modern human being is only on the needs and desires of the “inside” of man, denies the authority and validity of any external authority and it causes separation of human existence from heavenly religions. In contrast, the anthropological foundations of genuine and Islamic spirituality, rely on the existence of divine and common human nature between individuals. Thus, these Islamic foundations provide the possibility of general advice on spiritual journey. In addition, they consider guidance through revelation and true religion as the only reliable reference to respond to the nature and the transcendent spirit of man.  

Today, the approach of separating spirituality from religion in modern spirituality, in competition with spirituality derived from established religions, is prevalent. One of the key foundations of this approach is the liberalism towards Western readings. The present study aims to critique the basis of liberalism in separating spirituality from religion in order to clarify the fundamental flaws of this approach and the inadequacy of its results in providing for human spiritual life. In this regard, the works of Allamah Tabataba’i, as one of the greatest interpreters of Islamic teachings, have been extensively utilized. To this aim, data collection was done through library research and information processing using descriptive-analytical method with a critical approach. According to the findings, liberalism towards Western readings, rooted in individualistic humanism, is ineffective in the foundation of human spiritual life regarding the three major criticisms. Firstly, absolute freedom, which is the basis and component of the approach of separating spirituality from religion, is unattainable and non-existent. Then, freedom is not the ultimate goal but a tool to achieve genuine and true spirituality, and finally, rights-based approaches, considered as consequences of liberalism, are in contrast and on the other hand, duty-based approaches are the crucial basis for achieving true spirituality and without it, it is unimaginable.