RELIGIOSITAS SURAT CINTA KAHLIL GIBRAN KEPADA MAY ZIADAH

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the religious message contained in Kahlil Gibran's love letters to his eternal love May Ziadah in
the book: “Kahlil Gibran's Self-Portrait.” Gibran and Ziadah have been in love and have been in a relationship for 20 years.
During that span of time, the two of them never met once. Love letters sent by Kahlil Gibran to Ziadah not only express a sense of
admiration and love, but reveal events or prophetic voices (prophetic voices). Love that is most delicious and holy is love that
does not meet and have intercourse. The theoretical perspective used in this paper is religiosity. According to Atmosuwito,
religious is defined as broader than religion. Atmosuwito said, "If something is related or binding, submit, obey. However,
understanding is positive. Because, submission or obedience is associated with one's happiness. Whereas religion is usually
limited to teachings (doctrines), regulations (laws) ”(1989: 123). The method used to discuss the religiosity of Kahlil Gibran's love
letter to Ziadah is qualitative descriptive. The choice of this method is a consequence of the research data in the form of words,
phrases, sentences that contain religious values in Kahlil Gibran's literary letter. Data analysis was carried out with interpretation
using the approach of “text density, an approach in analyzing literary works based on the parallelism of themes contained in
several literary texts. The research found that Kahlil Gibran's letters to May Ziadah contain philosophical reflections that define
love not only as eros, but as an experience of faith and divine incarnation.