May I please share with you the following quotes I find quite mtivating/inspiring....for your evaluation and/or guidance as you/we 'hit' the Way to Barzakh:--

 

 

  1) "One who rectifies his inner self with an awareness of God's surveillance

       and sincerity; God adorns his outer self with devotional acts and

       adherence to the Prophetic Way (Sunnah)".--Imam al-Muhasabi.

 

  2) "Constantly remember God [Zikr] and you will obtain nearness to Him."

                                                                         -Imam al- Muhasabi.

 

  3) Imam al-Muhasabi also said concerning the Hadith; "the best of sustenance

      is that which suffices." "That is the basic provision, which comes day to

     day, and you do not worry about the sustenance of tomorrow."

     

6:112  And likewise ,We have made for every Prophet the shayateen/satans of mankind and the shayateen/satans of jinkind an enemy, some of them inspire golden words on some, for the purpose of delusion, and if your Lord had willed they would have not done it, so leave them and what they have invented.

 

 

I read about somebody being interested in "Islam and the West" so let me play a bit the "Advocatus Diaboli" ;-)

I think^^ it really starts from this point and famous quote:

So the problem would be what does the creator of our mind want? To make us mindless robots we could be ants or bees, which do live in "perfect" societies, but what is our brain then for and when does it really function *right*? I'm not god to tell but I have a mind to reflect. First "using 'my own?' intelligence" for me  is not matter of courage but of dignity. Accepting things that we don't understand makes us "slaves" i.e. immature. The difference is that a Muslim accepts, trusts and follows the word in the "Holy Book of the Muslims". To understand it correctly, is also a matter of scholarship and there you have  the problems and diversities.

The western society has lost faith, because it has identified the book with the interpretations of the "spiritual" elites which have proven wrong. So there comes the freedom of thinking and Christian diversity which goes further into courage of absurdity and satanism. I'd say that it's correct to say that the "great Satan" is the NWO law^^ makers and immaturity is blindly trusting and obeying that power. In the philosophy of "Existencialism" absurdity plays a role and IMHO spiritual rebellion is fighting against absurdity. But most people like submitting to it, i.e. they feel safe in a symbiosis with  the *power*. But power and maturity are anachronistic - as long as there is power there cannot be maturity and freedom, only the (eternal) rule of the clever over the st**id, which they  call the "natural order". So there we have link to the caste system of the Hindus. A Hindu from the lower caste, he is rebelling by converting to the God of Exodus. The same way it happened  to me that secular absurdities made me get "mad" and converted me by god revealing himself to me. So I feel myself chosen by opposing the rule of the "elites" which is too much courageous. The center of intelligence for me is *conscience" but not the one that is culturally/emotionally impregnated by fear of punishment, but the one the relates to truth and logic. So healthy dialog can only take place between conscientious  persons. And only from conscience there can result a soul, otherwise it's a diabolic intelligence, which always is inferior to the intelligence of god.

It might also be added, that the story of Adam and Eve is cosmological, i.e. it is still present with every new human being born. The diabolic aspect is the snake with it's falseness (split tongue) and the temptation.

In Islam the blame is put on the woman and she is being oppressed, i.e. the fall of Adam is not in his susceptibility to sin but in the presumed evil nature of Eve that has to be controlled.

The western society with its (illusion) of freedom is like the opening of "Pandoras box", whereas the freedom is the rule of God Mammon and  the Whore of Babylon. The only thing that we can do is to resist in favor of the soul salvation which the Holy Books are there fore. Soul salvation is the only reasonable thing a mortal can achieve. Happiness is in afterlife and the apocalypse the possibility that afterlife  could take place here on earth whereas there  is a wast universe too. But then we will all be Gnostic, i.e. fully aware of God and knowing that it's only st**id being a sinner.

"i.e. the fall of Adam"

One could say that in the West Adam became Lucifer or Icarus.