What causes happiness in this world is following the guidance laid down by God and constantly remembering Him
13:28,22:77,64:16,20:123"..then whoever follows My guidance, he shall not go astray nor be unhappy".
One is free to accept or not that guidance. That very freedom of choice, perceived by the angels when Allah originally stated His intent of creating a mortal on the earth
"Will you place in it one who would spread corruption in it and shed blood"
that potential for good and evil, constantly reiterated in the Quran explains God's statement
2:36,38,7:24"God said, ‘GO FORTH (ihbitoo), SOME OF YOU (ba’dukum) will be enemies of others. And for YOU (wa lakum) there is an abode on the earth and a provision for a time".
Here Allah plainly states, with the use of the plural for Adam and his wife, that among all of mankind, there will be SOME enmity. This enmity will result, as stated earlier, from rejecting God's guidance, whether it is the innate guidance towards uprightness and the knowledge of a Creator, which the Quran says every human being possesses, whether it is the guidance present in all aspects of creation pointing to an intelligent, purposeful design, or the guidance sent through revelation.
On the other hand whenever guidance is recognized and acted upon, then mankind "shall not go astray nor be unhappy". There is therefore in the Quranic account of creation no place whatsoever for unconditional, senseless and indiscriminate condemnation upon anyone. On the contrary, the incident is concluded with forgiveness and spiritual guidance.
The Christian belief on the other hand is that there was no forgiveness, sin became ingrained in human nature and transmitted to Adam's progeny. On top of that, God, instead of sending the solution to that "problem" in the shape of Christ's atoning death, establishes a long line of prophethood and laws to be followed. This divinely decreed deceptive crooked system was bound to fail in the face of human depravity, for several thousands of years, until the issue of salvation was finally resolved with the crucifixion.
This theology appeals to people who have despaired of life, themselves and God. It is toxic, as it crushes the person's self esteem, making him yield to dark thoughts of hopelessness in oneself, and it is satanic as it discourages the building of a relationship with a merciless, unloving God. Hope is therefore found elsewhere, neither in God nor man, but in an intercessor that fixes the defects of both so as to reconcile them. He is a sinless man and a merciful, loving God, both in one since the divine cancels sinfulness and the human cancels mercilesness and unlovingness. His divine nature makes this man capable of perfect deeds thus pleasing God and restoring His hope in man, his human nature makes this God capable of dying, and through this self-sacrifice, capable of showing love and mercy, thus pleasing man and restoring his hope in God.
Once more, Adam and his wife would have eventually left the garden with or without comitting their mistake. In both cases, their temporary stay in the garden would have served its purpose. In both cases, their descent to earth would not have been by way of punishment, since they were forgiven following their mistake.
The circumstances of their departure however could have been more honorable, had they successfully asserted their will against Iblis. Some ahadith reflect this, when they describe Adam's sin as the reason for mankind's expulsion from the garden. These reports do not speak of punishing mankind for Adam's sin, rather only say what triggered the descent to earth.
"Moses argued with Adam and said to him (Adam), 'You are the one who got the people out of Paradise by your sin, and thus made them miserable"."You are Adam who led people astray and brought them out of the Garden".
All that is suggested is that Adam, through his sin led people astray from the garden, where life was easy, unto a life of toil. But again, life on earth was something Allah had intended for mankind since before the creation of Adam. Moses here had no grounds to blame Adam for that decree. The most he could have blamed him for, was for disobeying a divine command, which he doesnt
"you blame me for a thing which Allah had ordained for me before He created me?." Allah's Messenger further said, "So Adam overcame Moses by this Argument".
Within the HB account itself, just as is made clear in the Quran 2:30, the primary purpose for which Adam and Eve were created, was to fill the earth and rule over the living creatures Gen1:28-29,2:5. They were created from the ground of the earth (not heaven) Gen2:7-8. Adam and Eve's "immortality" was tied to eating from the Tree of Life, which they could freely access as the Garden of Eden's caretakers Gen2:15-17. Since their "immortality" was conditioned on their staying in the Garden of Eden, it means that they were actually mortal human beings who were able to benefit from the privilege of eating the fruit of the Tree of Life to stay alive indefinitely. Their transgression, marked by the eating from another tree, the tree of knowledge, which imbued them with consciousness of both good and evil resulted in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. With that expulsion, their ability to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Life stopped. Had they kept eating from the tree of life, now that they are aware of not only good, but also evil, the result could have been that spiritually degenerate people and criminals might live forever. That is why they were only forbidden from the Tree of Life after their transgression Gen3. A type of angel, an angel of destruction, the cherubim was tasked with guarding the garden's entrance to prevent that eventuality.
Thus the result of their expulsion is that they eventually died.
Despite certain important variations, many fundamental aspects remain in the HB and parallel with the Quranic account, including the fact that it must have been God's plan from the beginning to ultimately place mankind on the earth, as His vicegerents. The main areas where the Quran disagrees with the Torah is that in the latter, the knowledge of good and evil were concealed from man in a "tree of knowledge" whereas the Quran clearly states that this spiritual feature is ingrained and hardwired in man. Mankind was meant to live on the earth, was put in a situation of potential transgression in the garden, given commands to abide by, what sense does it then make for him to be ignorant of good and evil?
According to the interpolated HB, when man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good an evil, man "became like one of us", against God's will and desire. According to the Quran, which by the way omits the idea of a "tree of knowledge", that inner distinction of good and evil was already ingrained in mankind's spiritual fabric when Allah "breathed into man of his spirit". Allah in sura Shams, defines it as "He inspired the soul with the knowledge of evil and good", meaning Adam was meant to "become like us" even before he was introduced to the garden and its trials. The HB still contains elements of this reality when it states that man was created in the "image of God".
This is one of many examples of Quranic intertextuality, the Quran's purposeful engagement with the biblical narrative, correcting it in a profound manner in accordance with its own distinctive theological message.
We thus see the Quran giving a consistent, comprehensive picture of creation from the beginning. Mankind were made mortals from the start 2:30 so as to allow them to be tested in their spiritual resolve and ultimately held accountable in the afterlife
67:1-2"Blessed is He in whose hand is dominion, and He is over all things competent - who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed - and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving".
All tools are put at man's disposal to pass this test; both inner and outward. Senses of spiritual perception to derive the higher meaning from the constant processes of this universe, and direct guidance through chosen individuals who communicate the will of the Creator. All these arrangements do not necessitate that man will succeed, or else there would be no test. Rather man was created as a volitional creature, with a neutral spiritual nature 30:30 that is shaped and developed according to one's moral choices throughout life 91:7-10. Death is therefore not an accident, nor is mankind of flawed spiritual disposition. In the Christian model, the purpose of man was redefined in the course of history. Although he was first made to live forever in heaven, man's disobedience sent him to this world and caused him to wander aimlessly as all his thoughts and deeds became stained with sin. At one point God created a device to compensate for that inherent human flaw, which is a divine sacrifice, thereby giving man a new purpose; accepting Jesus' sacrifice.
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