Yalnızlığın Anlam Yitimi: Hâlk İçinde Hak ile Beraber Olmaktan Kalabalıklar İçinde Yabancılaşmaya
Loss of Meaning of Loneliness: From Being with the Right Among the People to Alienation Among the Crowd

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, loneliness is undergoing a dramatic transformation, shifting from a meaningful and conscious experience to a state that is aimless and involuntarily encountered. Drawing attention to the loss of meaning in the experience of loneliness, this article discusses the profound distinction between the loneliness experienced by increasingly individualised people in the modern era and the purposeful and meaningful loneliness seen as an important practice in the Sufi tradition for the process of human perfection. In our era, rapid digitalisation, excessive individualisation, and the dissolution of familial, religious, and social bonds have left people ‘alone in crowds.’ While constantly engaging in virtual interactions, they experience a state of alienation, feeling emotionally and spiritually isolated. Comparing this loneliness, one of the major crises of the modern era, with practices of solitude such as asceticism, seclusion, retreat, and isolation, which are employed in the Sufi tradition to attain a certain spiritual maturity, the article draws attention to the existential and psychosocial problems faced by modern humans as loneliness loses its meaning. The main objective of the article is to examine the social and psychological dimensions of modern loneliness in light of Sufism's teachings, which address humanity in its various dimensions, to reveal the possibilities for overcoming this crisis and to explore how loneliness can be transformed into a meaningful, conscious action, becoming a practice that brings humanity into contact with both itself and the truth.

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