Sufi experience in coping with problems

All the movements that occur in the daily life of the individual are life events. These life events can be positive or negative. Individuals may show different reactions to such events. The religious way of looking at these events that happen to people is called religious coping. Religious coping can be achieved through many methods such as repentance, gratitude, patience, tawakkul, consent to fate, surrender to Allah. People who adopt any the way of islamic mysticism/sect can approach the problems they are exposed to according to their religious coping methods. The COVID-19 pandemic experienced in the past years, the wars in our nearby geography, the rapid increase in social migration events and the economic crises experienced have increased the importance of the response to be put forward in dealing with the problems. People can show different reactions to such severe problems they are exposed to, depending on the diversity of their lifestyles and ways of understanding. From the perspective of Sufism, the concepts of patience and gratitude were the most used among religious coping methods in the literature. The Sufis who lived in the period starting from the time of the Prophet Muhammad and following the Companions and their successors were aware of the transience of this world but the hereafter is eternal life, and according to this fact, they were always patient and grateful for the tests, troubles, calamities or blessings that befall them. In addition, according to Sufis in mystical thought, both evil and good come from Allah, and they accept whatever Allah has manifested in the title of "Jalal and Jamal", and they accept that it would be beneficial for this situation to happen to them. Moreover, since mystics believe that calamities are a blessing that leads to attaining divine love, they can happily endure all kinds of ordeals in the hope that the lover will meet his beloved. Allah has created man in the most beautiful way with intelligence and will. In the name of religious coping, it is necessary for a person to use his mind and will in the face of difficulties, to learn lessons from the Qur'an, to read about their lives from the first Prophet to Prophet Muhammad and to shed light on his own path in this way. In the study, the issue of coping with problems was handled in this manner, a literature review was made on the basis of concepts and the approach of mystics to the subject was examined. In addition, in 2022, oral interviews were conducted with 20 people selected by random sampling method, who were in the gathering centers of Sufis in the Keçiören district of Ankara, and the behavior of the Sufis in the face of the problem was examined. In the interviews conducted with the participants who are members of any Sufi branch/sect and adopt a mystical lifestyle, individuals talked about the difficulties they experienced in various periods of their lives (family, environmental, economic, social, etc.) and described their reactions to these difficulties. Participants generally answered the questions as "patience, gratitude, consent, rebelling, coping with by thinking of their guides, coping with asking for spiritual help from their mentors, coping with their mentors visitation, etc.", and their coping styles were analyzed on the basis of these terms. According to these results, it was tried to understand the Sufi approach in the face of difficulties. It has been determined that the general approach of the Sufis is within the framework of surrender to Allah. Keywords: Sufism, Coping, Problem, Surrender to Allah, Patience