I would say many of us suffer or have Spiritual Retrogression. (Retrogression means the process of returning to an earlier state, typically a worse one). That is we go two steps forward with dhikr-Remembrance of Allah and then go three steps back.
This is due to lack of adab-manners or faults or slips or sins that we will fall into through our untrained nafs-Ego which is our enemy and weakness.
The nafs-Ego is the enemy of the Ruh-Soul, The Soul only wants Peace and tranquilly which can only happen through dhikr-Remembrance of Allah as the Quran says;
"Only in remembrance of Allah will your heart find peace" (Quran 13: 28) and this can only be given by Allah, but the enemies and there are four in number of the soul don’t want Peace and tranquilly for our soul.
I think progress began to retrogress when Wilbur and Orville started tinkering around in Dayton and at Kitty Hawk, because I believe that two Wrights made a wrong.
Ogden Nash, "Come, Come, Kerouac! My Generation is Beater Than Yours," New Yorker, 1959 April 4
im sort of a believer that gender identity / gender assignment is a social / economic construct. the dichotomy of "female" and "male" and defining cisgendered as "matching gender assignment / gender identity" are all fallacious concepts? but are enforced on society because government systems need these splits for organization / labeling of people / allocation of social roles. if all goes well, this concept will be abolished in the future (hopefully!)
here's it in song
Me: GENDER IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT *strums on guitar*
Karen: THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO OF THEM *plays a chord*
Shelly: IN FACT IT'S A SPECTRUM (THE BINARY IS CREATED BECAUSE CAPITALISM REQUIRES TWO DISTINCT ""ROLES"") *rock solo*
Karen: SOME PEOPLE FIT ON IT AND SOME PREFER NOT TO DEFINE *bass accompaniment*
Shelly: DEFINING CISGENDER AS THE SEX MATCHING WITH THE GENDER IS ALSO PROBLEMATIC, WHO ARE WE TO SAY IT'S ""MATCHING"" *drumming in the bg*
Karen: GENDER IS A SOCIAAAAAAL CONSTRUUUCCCCT *reprise of the chorus*
even though this is still somewhat of a dystopian society, i feel in retrovers there's going to be incredible progressions in the concept of gender. there is no longer a gender binary, but a gender spectrum - people can opt out of it if they want to. as for identification, there's no longer a gender / sex column, but a chromosome identification tag. the person goes through karyotyping of their chromosomes (would they do karyotyping in the future? i have no clue, but let's say yes they do), but instead of slapping a label such as 'female' / 'male', they would simply put on "Sex: XX, XY, XXY, XYY, XO" etc., depending on the configuration of the chromosomes.
i think a huge part of retroverse' "gender" society is about the discovery of your gender, if i can word it that way. note how i have not said "choice". just like how you can't control who you're attracted to, you can't control the way you'll inevitably identify yourself. while this lack of label from the get-go when it comes to gender arguably makes things more complex, i feel as though it's a lot more liberating and doesn't put any sort of social pressure for any person of any specific chromosome configuration to conform to a certain stereotype. though i still feel like there will be stereotypes for the types of personality you might have that are directly influenced by your career choices and economic standing and etc, there won't be any for chromosome configuration. our current definitions of 'cis' and 'trans' will be pretty much obsolete in retroverse
so everyone begins with the neutral pronoun of 'they'. i've chosen 'they' instead of 'it', as i feel like the universe as a whole wants to promote a unified vibe, and 'they' will still have connotations of togetherness even in the far future. however, people who later change their pronouns are not looked down upon for "isolating themselves" or anything like that. when you meet someone for the first time in retroverse,
it's pretty common to ask "do you have preferred pronouns" because the default is always 'they'. and there could be multiple ways of answering this question. maybe they don't like the 'they' pronoun, and they will either politely, angrily, forlornly, indifferently, etc correct the person and say 'i go by ze/hir pronouns exclusively' meaning 'IF YOU REFER TO ME AS THEY I WILL RIP YOUR FUCKING THROAT OUT!' (if ze is the angry type). or maybe they don't care and just say 'you can use whatever pronouns' which gives a LOT OF PEOPLE ANXIETY but whatever. or maybe they're fine with they, and they can respond with 'they is fine' or maybe they have particular pronouns that only family members can use, while strangers use other ones.
the more politically correct way of asking would just be "what are your pronouns?" but it slips people's minds sometimes.
in retroverse, labels are used for self-identity and aren't usually enforced on other people or require people to check a metaphorical "list" off before they can deem themselves a certain label (unless it's like. being an engineer or smth.)
admittedly, this method of discovering your own gender does not erase possible body dysphoria that people will experience. and happily, the world takes this in stride. people are still very cautious, and frequently ask "are you sure you want to do this" and "can your body handle it", but hormone treatments and external sexual organ reconfiguration are relatively accessible to the public; though the latter is under larger scrutiny as it's a pretty long healing process. the quality of implants and prostheses vary, but are usually of high quality. plastic surgery for superficial purposes are still kind of looked down upon in retroverse, however.
