Critical Analysis of Extravagant Individualism As the Anthropological Basis of Secular Spirituality Emphasizing the Works of Allamah Tabatabaei

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.