of one of my favorite poems.

 A Man Said to the Universe
-- Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

"I was a Hidden Treasure and I wanted to be know. I manifested Creation that I might be known through My Creation."

 This is supported by 51:56.

Allah made a Covenant DIRECTLY with you, but some of you forget your covenant.

Islam might be called the practice of remembering your promise to Allah.

Istaghfer Allah

I've thought the very same thing... although usually when I was mad at the world.

Y'know - "Bah, I didn't ASK to be born! I didn't ASK to exist!!!" Followed by a long sulk... and then the realization that I was here, I may as well do something productive and constructive.

You can bury me in some green valley/for many years where I may lay/Then you may learn to love another/while I am sleeping in my grave/Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger/my face you'll never see no more/But there is one promise that is given/I'll meet you on God's golden shore.

I've always thought that Islam is similar to Buddhism in its annihilation of dualism. It differs in one crucial respect: in Buddhism existence is a burden, but in Islam it is a mercy. So I'm afraid I'm not with you on the existentialism train. :)

PS: Man of constant sorrow was the inspiration for the allegorical western i was telling you about. Guess what place is a green valley.

On the question that no one asked me, the question itself brings into being the askee. Hence the absurdity of this question. And yet we have to affirm, we have to believe and we have to believe. I wonder how far is Islamic Existentialism from Islamic Absurdism?

>> Because between coming into being and going out of being, there is this. Life.

If by going out of being you mean non-being then this view will be out of the confines of traditional Islamic worldview. A Muslim Camus is more likely to say something like this. I recently read your reworked version of the Myth of Sisyphus. Interesting. :)

Now a brief side note on Islam and the philosophy of Existentialism. Niaz Erfan has a book on the subject of Iqbal and Existentialism and numerous comparisons between Iqbal and Kierkegaard have been made in the past. Mulla Sadra and the Illuminist school of thought have been compared to existentialists in the past

To spell out further what dmz said, 51:56 says "wa ma khalaqtu wa'l-jinna wa'l-insa illa li-ya`budun", " I did not create jinn and men except that they should worship Me" (Lings' translation).

Jalalayn on this verse says "And I did not create the jinn and mankind except that they may worship Me: the fact that disbelievers do not worship [God] does not contradict this [statement], since a purpose does not have to be realised [in an act, for it to be valid], as when you may say: 'I sharpened this pencil in order to write with it', even though you might not actually write with it." In my layperson's terms, beyond existentialism, we have strive to discover and enact the divine covenant within ourselves. It is the struggle to realise this purpose that defines the journey of faith.

So what precisely is the modus operandi that we would seek to realise in actualising the covenant in our own lives? Ibn Abbas, one of the Quran exegetes amongst the Companions, said that ya`budun meant ya`rifun, or "except that they may know Me".   

There are many dimensions to this, but the fifth letter of Sheikh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani's (from his Fifteen Letters) on the nature of ma`iyya or "withness" or "togetherness" between the seeker and the Besought is as good as any:

The Fifth Letter

Concerning the significance of the immediate presence [ma'iyya] of Allah (Exalted is He), and the fact that His knowledge (Exalted is He) embraces all things.

My dear friend!

When the suns of our spiritual experiences [ma'arif] rise from their points of ascension in the skies of our innermost beings, the earths of our hearts will be illumined by the light of:

And the earth will shine with  the light of its Lord. (39:69)
wa ashraqati 'l-ardu bi-nuri  Rabbi-ha.

--and the coverings of the darkness of ignorance will be removed from the eyes of our minds, with the ointment of:

But now We have removed from  you your covering. (50:22)
fa-kashafna 'an-ka  ghita'a-ka.

The eyes of our inward intellects will then be dazzled by the radiant emanations of the lights of holiness [al-quds]. Our processes of thought will wonder in amazement, at the disclosure of the marvelous secrets of the realm of the spiritual kingdom [al-malakut].

Excited by the thrill of ardent love [al-'ishq], the seeker will go a-wandering in the deserts of the quest. Then, in the sites of nearness, the raptures of yearning [ghalabat ash-shawq] will become familiar to him, and the herald of:

Allah is truly Bountiful  toward mankind. (10:60)
inna 'llaha la-Dhu Fadlin  'ala 'n-nasi.

--will proclaim:

And He is with you wherever  you may be. (57:4)
wa Huwa ma'a-kum aina-ma  kuntum.

Once he has discovered the secret of 'togetherness' [al-ma'iyya], the seeker will lose his personal existence, in compliance with the dictate of:

And do not set together with  Allah another god. (51:51)
wa la taj'alu ma'a 'llahi  ilahan akhar.

As soon as he has plunged into the sea of the personal extinction [fana'] of:

No part of the matter is your  concern. (3:128)
laisa la-ka mina 'l-amri  shai'un.

--so that he may obtain the jewel of the affirmation of Oneness [tawhid], the waves of solicitude [ghaira] will fling him into the ocean of sublimity ['azama]. Each time he makes for the shore, in the plight of bewilderment, he must say:
My Lord, I have wronged  myself, so forgive me! (28:16)
Rabbi inni zalamtu nafsi  fa-'ghfir li.
 

--for then he will be picked up by the rescue vessels of the kind favors of:

And We have carried them on  land and sea. (17:70)
wa hamalna-hum fi 'l-barri wa  'l-bahri.

--and they will set him down on the beach of the the tender kindness of:

We visit with Our mercy whom  We will.  (12:56)
nusibu bi-rahmati-na man  nasha'u.

They will hand him the keys to the treasure houses of the mysteries of:

And Allah is always  encompassing all things. (4:126)
wa kana 'llahu bi-kulli  shai'in Muhita.

--and they will point out to him the indications of:

And that unto your Lord is  the final destination. (53:42)
wa anna ila Rabbi-ka  'l-muntaha.

He will thereby come to know the meaning of:

And He revealed to His  servant that which He revealed. (53:10)
fa-awha ila 'abdi-hi ma awha.

--and he will understand the implication of:

Indeed, he saw one of the  greatest signs of his Lord. (53:18)
la-qad ra'a min ayati  Rabbi-hi 'l-kubra.

Existentialism occurs not just when the seeker no longer seeks togetherness with the Besought, but when the seeker confines her or his search to the speculations of the intellect. Solipsism, or recursive thinking manifested as recurrent dilemma within human horizons, is the result.

Dr Carret in his dialogue with Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi, translated by Martin Lings in his A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century (p. 28) says that when he described his idea of the spirit as not eternal and as being only an embodiement of "the sum total of acquired ideas", the Sheikh pointed out that what was lacking in him was "the desire to raise the Spirit above yourself". In another exchange when the Sheikh asked Dr Carret if he believed in God to which the doctor replied that God, as the Prinicple that created and gave meaning to existence, was essentially unknowable (while saying that if he were to believe in God he would devote himself not to the world but to the next life), the Sheikh replied: "It is a pity that you will not let your Spirit rise above yourself. But whatever you may say and whatever you may imagine, you are nearer to God than you think." (p. 29)

I raise all this not to question anyone's faith, least of all Ali's, and not make the point that everyone knows that we didn't choose to be here, but that God chose for us to be here. It is rather to say this:

Faith is about the soul rising above the dilemmas of the self to fulfil the covenant and to know God by achieving "togetherness"; existentialism is a personal philosophy centred on remaining within those dilemmas of the self.

If there is an Islamic rationale for solipsism, I'd like to know what it is, but I doubt that it would add up.

In friendship, your fellow seeker, Yahya