The influence of existentialist views, especially those of Jean-Paul Sartre, on Iranian writers and intellectuals in the era before the Islamic Revolution can be seen well. Among the religious intellectuals of his time, Shariati is one of the important figures whose revolutionary and fascinating literature, inspired by existentialist views on the choice and social and political responsibility of man and his radical criticism of the stagnation and immobility of traditional religion, played an important role in the political mobilization of the revolutionary youth and masses. had Shariati's special emphasis on man and humanism centered on human freedom and choice, which ultimately elevates man as a revolutionary actor, is an expression of this. The main question is about how Shariati confronts Sartre's existentialist theory about the concept of man and freedom and responsibility. The main hypothesis is that Shariati, inspired by Sartre's existentialist approach, drew the concept, role and responsibility of man as a radical subject in his religious literature, but he tried with his divine reading of the creation of man against Sartre's material narrative of the crisis of emptiness that governs existentialism.
Be freed The method of gathering the necessary data to carry out such a research is documents, in the framework of which a collection of Shariati's views related to Sartre's existentialist approach to the concept of man and his role and place to analyze the concept of man and his responsibility in his religious literature were taken into consideration and analyzed. The collected data were recognized by using different approaches to his views and then the results of this survey were reanalyzed and criticized using conceptual tools in which the analytical-historical method was used. The studies conducted regarding the background of the research show that there are two general approaches in this regard, some such as Seyyed Mehrdad Hosseini Dashtbayaz and Mehrangiz Nemati believe that Shariati's thought is more influenced by Sartre's anthropological approach to the concept of freedom and responsibility. The second approach is in the thought of people such as Bijan Abdul Karimi, Seyyed Javad Miri, and Mohammad Amin Qanirad, who emphasize Shariati's influence of phenomenological existentialist thoughts with Heidegger's ontological view.
The findings of this research show that Shariati is one of the few religious intellectuals of contemporary Iran who pays special attention to the concept of man in its modern sense. For this reason, he can be considered a humanistic thinker. In his view, the most obvious characteristic of a human being is self-awareness. Consciousness and self-awareness is the basis for the realization of human freedom as a rebellious being that can overcome the natural and environmental conditions and requirements. He tries to depict the human power in determining his individual, collective and even historical destiny as the most important human characteristic.
Shariati's views about man and the role of will and consciousness in him are not influenced by Sartre's existential anthropology. A comparative study of Shariati's views on the definition of man with the foundations of Sartre's anthropology can well show the existentialist roots of his views. The priority of freedom and will in defining man as an independent existence from any kind of imposed nature is a view that is well evident in Sartre's works. Shariati, like Sartre, sees man in an evolutionary process that can evolve his existence based on his conscious role in the developments of his life and to the extent that he affects the limitations and impositions of his environment. Shariati's way of dealing with the role of man in history and the power and capability of man in changing the environment and the world around him and the ability to dominate it is the condition for the realization of human humanity and his definition of the rational action of humans is completely based on an existentialist understanding of man.
Shariati's attention to Sartre's existential anthropology did not mean his complete and unquestioning acceptance. He considered emptiness to be a big gap and conflict common in the views of Sartre and other existentialist thinkers and writers, which separated him from this intellectual tradition. According to him, the reason why existentialist thinking has led to absurdity is the superficiality and everydayness of human ideals and the goals of contemporary human life in their eyes. Shariati believed that getting rid of this emptiness depended on raising the level of human ideals in life and believed that a person values everyday material ideals until he has not reached them, and when he reaches them, he will reach emptiness. Shariati considers disbelief in God and ignoring his position as a supreme being and the source of the highest values and ideals in human life as the reason for reaching emptiness. In order to get rid of the absurdity of existentialist attitudes, he tries to present a theistic narrative of existentialist anthropology.
Shariati criticizes European atheistic humanism, which in existentialism has led to anxiety and restlessness caused by absurdity and moral crisis caused by the lack of a transcendent moral standard; It tries to provide a new and creative definition of humanism in which man does not stand in front of God, but with his freedom, choice and conscious action, he moves from the material and earthly dimension of his existence to the divine and transcendent dimension. For him, human freedom is a possibility through which man can transform his existential duality into monotheism and by choosing lofty ideals for his life, give his life a lofty value and meaning.