Death is the absolute destiny for all living beings in this universe. There is
nerve in our soul when we remember about death. It is because there is an
existential principal of anti-nothingness in the deepest of human existence to
refuse death. It can make human falls into the “possessing principle” and forgets
on the “existing principle”, which more responsible, polite, easy to forgive, love
and peace. The title of this research is “Reconstruction of the Meaning of Death
According to Martin Heidegger and Syekh Siti Jenar (Comparative Study of
Existentialism Philosophy)” that purposed to know what Martin Heidegger and
Syekh Siti Jenar’s thought about death; what is the factor and background that
influenced Martin Heidegger and Syekh Siti Jenar’s thought about death; what is
the reconstruction of death. This research uses the method of synthetic analytical,
by historical and philosophical approach.
According to Martin Heidegger, death is a condition when Dasein stopped
as Being-in-the-world; it is also “a possibility to die”, in which Dasein is always
facing its “future” in heading to die. The conception of death in Heidegger’s
thought influenced by some factors and background; Heidegger lived in a crisis
era of The World War II, he also influenced by many figures such as Aristotle,
Husserl, Wilhelm Dilthey, Kierkegaard, St. Augustine Hippo, Karl Barth, Duns
Scotus, Friedrich Nietzsche and Friedrich Hölderlin.
In other side, for Siti Jenar, death is only a transit for spirit in the physical
world. It covers all human when he separated from God (The Eternal Live) and
trapped in this physical world (the grave world). Syekh Siti Jenar’s thought about
death influenced by his teachers such as, Syekh Datuk Kahfi, Aria Damar, and his
companions such as Ahmad al-Mubasyarah. Siti Jenar also influenced by other
figures of Moslem and Sufism, such as al-Kharaj, al-Qusyairi, Ibnu ‘Arabi, al-
Ghazali, al-Thawasin, al-Hallaj, al-Busthami, and al-Jilli. Siti Jenar mixed the
concept of death from many notions and cultures with his spiritual experience. He
lived in a crisis of era transition; from Majapahit to Islam Demak.
The writer reconstructs the meaning of death in Heidegger and Siti Jenar’s
conception that death is a condition of human in or out of this world that is a
transit of his existence or his spirit from nothingness-towards-nothingness, from
separation-towards-unity with God. This definition can resolve some weakness
spots of Heidegger and Siti Jenar’s thought about death, it is that an act of
pessimistic will transform to be optimistic because we aware that we will unite
with God, and an act of passive will transform to be active when we aware that we
are thrown, because by this awareness, human will use his time as good as
possible. Thereby, the veil of pessimistic of death that can appear in Heidegger’s
thought and the veil of passivism of death that can appear in Siti Jenar’s thought
can be avoidable. If someone has already able to be optimistic and active, then he
will easy to achieve or at least to run his life authentically as the real human
(manusia sejati).