Return to God in Tennyson's In Memoriam: An Islamic Perspective

Abstract

This research is an analytical study discussing the issue of doubt as it contradicts the belief in God to Alfred Lord Tennyson in his great elegy, “In Memoriam.” The Islamic religion calls for the return to God and it emphasizes that God would rejoice in the believer’s return to Him and repentance of sins and disobedience. The mercy of God is available for those who would like to be repented at any time in their lifetime. God has no deadline for repentance and return. This research is a comparative study that deals with the issue of return to God after disobedience and doubt between what was mentioned in the poem In Memoriam and the Islamic perspective in this regard. This study revolves around the question of whether there is any correspondence in the concept of return to God between what is mentioned by Tennyson in In Memoriam and what is given in the Holy Quran. Through the evidence that is presented in the body of the paper, harmonization between what Tennyson mentioned in In Memoriam and what is written in Quran and the prophetic Hadiths (The Prophet Muhammad's sayings) would be proved.