In the name of Allah SWT. Creator of the worlds. Lord of the heavens and the earth. The Most Gracious. The Most Beneficent. The Most Merciful.
The Criterion for Discernment is 'not' a poetic phrase. Nor is it a sermon.
Nor does it aim to attack what you hold sacred.
It is a Spiritual-Allegorical Narrative, that depicts the different rewards attached to living and dying on the path of obedience to the commandments of Allah SWT, contrasting it with the different horrible consequences attached to living and dying on the path of disobedience to the commandments of Allah SWT; weaving it into a journey of love, trials, choices, and triumphs.
It is a symbolic literary fiction, and a slow-born, theological framework, where choices, moral consequences, and Divine discernment intertwine.
It is a mirror, held directly at the heart of the reader and listener alike, asking the tough questions.
This book is not to be read merely for fun. No.
If you are one who hate truth or wants surface level story that does not touch your soul, turn back now.
It is 'not' for readers and listeners who want haram romance or easy answers; but those who want answers that is aligned with what is true.
It exists 'explicitly' to reshape and refine the soul.
It is for those who reason, and those who reflect deeply on their daily choices.
For those who know; and those who want to know; the unending benefits attached to fearing their Lord, unseen, sincerely.
Those who know; and those who want to know; that each choice we make daily has weight; heavy or light; and holds consequences that echo beyond the present into the future and into the Hereafter.
It is 'not' for those who care less about the commandments of Allah SWT and the eternal consequences of their earthly deeds and indulgence.
It is 'not' for those who see right in justifying wrongdoings and disobedience to the commandments of Allah SWT for monetary gain, temporary pleasure, or out of disbelief.
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What You Will Encounter in This Book:
Circling around the life path of two mirror-souls, The Criterion for Discernment serves as a pilgrimage into the innermost chambers of our soul for spiritual enlightenment and also aim at possible reform.
For Jamal and Aamina, their journey teaches that love alone is not the bedrock of a successful relationship.
Purification, alignment with what is true, and surrender to Divine timing are.
It teaches that when purification precedes union, the relationship becomes more than companionship; it becomes a means of strengthening faith, raising conscious children, and repairing generational error. It states that: the soul that resets before union does not lose love; it upgrades into it.
The separation phase is not cruelty, nor infatuation, nor toxic love, nor obsession. No. It is a phase of purification and training the heart away from compromise. Despite distance, their growth is a mirrored one orchestrated by an unexplained soul‑pull and their individual unwavering devotion to uphold the commandments of Allah SWT. They will have to return to Allah SWT individually and to truth before returning to each other, because union after alignment becomes covenant.
But union without alignment would eventually bring negligence of divine duty.
You will also encounter in the lives of diverse characters and shifting scenes; the wrong choices that could make you worthy of the punishment of the Fire; the right choices that guide your steps and bring blessings from Allah SWT on this earth and in the Hereafter; and the unchecked choices that pushed many back into alignment and many other deeper into error after meeting a certain nearer punishment for their misguided deeds. In those critical choices made when returning to alignment feels like surrendering to punishment.
As a reader or a listener, you might see yourself in their hesitation.
You might feel your own struggles in their silence, their triumphs, and adverse moments.
The awakening it brings to your soul is through the reflections you do with the lessons you learn from the guided and misguided choices/indulgence of the characters.
But this book is more than just a story of two mirror-souls finding their way to union. At its core, it teaches the practice of Holistic Discernment and the uncompromised use of the naturally embedded Criterion, to keep us in alignment with Divine order as we grow toward our certain death.
So it is important before we begin, that we know:
What is Holistic discernment?
What is the Criterion?
How do they (The Criterion for Discernment) work together, serving as a compass and navigator for the heart across our temporary earthly journey?
And why is it important to awaken these discerning questions in our heart and teach it to offspring at an early stage?
Walk with me.
Every human on earth travels a path shaped by the unseen influences of their personal choices. The detachment of our heart from sincere fear of Allah SWT and the excessive desire for the temporary enjoyments of this worldly life is what make people justify disobedience and persist on the path of sin and what led so many nations and individuals astray.
Holistic Discernment/Discernment is the internal, self‑built, unbiased questions outlined with the heart and the conscience highly attuned to truth and obedience to the commandments of Allah SWT, allowing you to differentiate the path of alignment with Divine order and Divine guidance from the path of delusion and spiritual deception cloaked in temporary gain when making choices.
Discernment is the soul‑trained ability to see beyond Earth's illusionary glitter and recognize the devil's whispers wrapped in modern temptation and promises of instant gratification. Acting as a judge in whatever wake of life your struggle to escape adversities or to seek and enjoy the bounty of Allah SWT might take you.
But discernment is not merely judgment, because judgment can be crude, biased, automatic, or even tribal sometimes.
Discernment comprises the internal rules built for judging our deeds and indulgence, refined by humility.
It is the quiet, razor‑edged art of seeing what actually is true and what is not in the way of Allah; beneath the beautification of worldly illusions.
They are rules that give the soul the ability to:
-- See strength in a truthful claim.
-- Detect possible imbalance in misguided practices.
-- And introduce stabilizing context that doesn't contradict Divine guidance.
It is the ability to tell a genuine angelic whisper in the heart from a demonic one dressed in light.
These internal subtle questions is built knowingly to serve as telescope that helps you magnify and examine the future spiritual outcome of your current indulgence/deeds without bias or justified compromise when making critical, minor, or life‑changing choices.
Questioning whether your choices and current indulgence traject you toward a life lived with purpose and accountability to Allah SWT and a future return to paradise after death, or toward a life that displeases Allah SWT and will eventually make you worthy of punishment on earth and in the Hereafter; before it is too late (before the indulgence/deeds/choice leads you into despair, or you eventually meet certain death with sincere repentance.)
You will understand more about these punishment types as you read across the pages of this book).
Dear reader and listener.
Whether you are:
a student, a lecturer, a doctor, a slave, a king, a master, a mistress, a writer, a preacher, a politician, a banker, a leader, a follower, a man, a girl, an orphan, a mother, a teacher, a brother;
the worker, the merchant, the traveller, the stranger, the deaf, the blind, the lame, the strong, the weak, the oppressor, the cultist, the beggar, the philanthropist, the tyrant, an evildoer;
a wicked person, a good-hearted fellow, the broken, the player, the lover, the good, the bad, the ugly, the perfectionist;
a deceitful person, a truthful person, a trustworthy person, a lecturer, a homeless person, a billionaire, a tyrant, a wretched person, a lawmaker, a defender, a coder, an innovator, a banker, a bandit, a perpetrator of good, a perpetrator of evil;
a money handler, a spiritual leader, a traditionalist, a thief, a musician, a kidnapper, a bandit, a corrupt group kingpin, a godfather, etc.
Discernment is simply your heart's own uncompromised ability to evaluate the future consequences of your soul's current indulgence, to think about its own activities, to see whether the path leads toward blessings from Allah SWT or into an inevitable ruin.
These self-built internal subtle questions are the internal personal advisers that help you focus the outcome of your choices on accountability to Allah SWT. This question is what you let you reflect sincerely on the future spiritual, emotional, physical, and psychological result of your current daily indulgence/choices to worship, to earn, to love, or in how you relate with other people in the society before or during indulgence, or the choices you make after meeting a nearer punishment. (you will understand more about this nearer punishment when you get to the page that talks about "The Inevitable Divine Reckoning".
This uncompromised question brings automatic clarity and grounding to the soul, keeping the soul in line with what is true with the path of the Creator; during times of adversity and times of bounty, so it does not succumb to the inclinations of the ego-self and thereby derail onto the path of those worthy of the punishment of Allah SWT; as we journey to certain death at the uncertain hour.
Discernment implies insight, wisdom, and perceptiveness to truth.
This discerning question is not noise.
It is not impulse.
It is not questioning revelation or Divine law. No.
It is the heart and the mind sincerely questioning the self, the soul, the choices, the normalized practices, the indulgence, the accountability, the worship, the justifications, the pattern, the alliances, the heedlessness; with accountability to the commandments of Allah SWT as the reference point slowed by attention, sharpened by love for the truth even when it costs you something.
It is the ability to judge well, to see subtle differences, to grasp the deeper nature of something; especially when the choice isn't obvious.
When someone exercises discerning questions during; before; or after choices/indulgence, they don't just "go with their gut." The questions let them test their choices/indulgence against their internal criterion during both critical moments, happy moments, and times of adversity.
And what is The Criterion?
The criterion is a naturally embedded specific principle, rule, or standard by which something is judged, evaluated, or decided. It is the spiritual yardstick you use to make a choice.
As discernment is personally and consciously awaken in the heart, the criterion is naturally embedded into the soul like an array of cosmic advisers by Allah SWT at birth serving as the soul's natural standard for judgment, separating the path of darkness from the path of light.
The criterion is what aids the soul to recognize:
truth from falsehood,
purity from corruption,
alignment from deviation; except if compromised intentionally or out of ignorance to justify sinful indulgence.
If not compromised, Criterion is what act as an internal witness and reference point for building the discerning questions in order not to arrive at decisions laced with justified compromise because it naturally inclines toward truth.
These naturally embedded criteria/criterion are the facilities through which the human soul is capable of recognizing and responding to truth.
They are:
- Conscience,
- The primordial disposition toward truth (fitrah).
- reason,
- and the gift of free will, which is the ability to choose
--between doing good and perpetrating evil,
--between acting right toward fellow humans and acting wrong for our personal benefit without the sincere fear of Allah SWT,
--between shrine, stones, and mediator worship and truthful direct worship of The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,
--between being a tyrant leader that spread corruption upon the earth surface and being a merciful leader that brings peace and unity to earth, in line with Divine order,
--between being a citizen that spread corruption upon the earth surface and support injustice and being among those that promote love, unity, peace, and spread harmony upon the earth surface.
You are free to choose.
But across generations, many of the descendants of Adam suffer from the preference for instant gratification over patience in Divine timing. People usually dislike truth and Divine guidance because following guidance sincerely requires steadfastness on the path of Allah SWT and patience in the unseen. They instead prefer the deluded and temporary promises of this worldly life and thereby turn away from every sign of Allah SWT. Many follow what their fathers, forefathers, peers, leaders, society, and ancestors did, justified, and normalized, and even when their embedded criterion directs them otherwise, they instead compromise the Criterion to indulge because of forefather effect. They neglect obedience to divine guidance, and divulge into disobedience and disbelief because of the promise of delusional enjoyment and the love of instant gratification that has veiled their reality.
Instead of discerning their deeds and repent sincerely for those that are on the path of misalignment, they demand:
"When is this promise? Where is this Creator?"
"Why should I pray fervently? Why should I treat others equal?", and they say,
"We live and we die. And nothing changes us except time." And they instead walk the earth in self-exultation while continuously disputing among themselves.
Rather, they are disputing concerning the matter of their Return.
Concerning the inevitable Meeting with their Creator; whereas they could die anytime and any hour which is definitely the Day of return to their Creator.
Alhamdulillah for the Qur'an and the teachings of the messengers of Allah SWT. Indeed, without it many individuals today would still be lost in the same cycles of normalized disobedience and justified sinful practices that made many individuals and nations from among the former people worthy of the punishments of Allah SWT while they perceived it not.
Across generations and the evolution of earth, humanity consistently battle with resisting the wants of the ego-self from birth till death, that is why humans are naturally inclined to diverging into sinful practices for quick gain, temporary pleasure, or for the enjoyment of delusion.
When the inner criterion becomes compromised with the first indulgence and without a well‑managed discernment rule that would anchor your heart back to the path of truth, it could automatically serve as the justifier for continuous indulgence in evil practices and disobedience because when you remove the sincere fear of Allah SWT from your heart.
Different people make choices and indulge in different activities because of the gift of freewill and what their heart have justified for them that it is right, even if it is wrong and would indeed hurt their soul. The temporary easy path from unjust earning and the quick reward from corruption-rooted practices is what made many of the descendants of Adam routinely forget Allah SWT and diverge into disobedience across generations. We humans forget that this freewill was not given to us for misuse. For it leads directly into the justice of Allah SWT. Either the freewill lead you into practices that bring the wrath of Allah SWT upon your soul on earth and in the Hereafter, or it lead you into choices that brings the blessings of Allah SWT on earth and in the Hereafter. These criteria/criterion in every human is to serve as a natural resistor toward sinful indulgence as we grow.
These naturally embedded laws/rules(Criterion) do not merely arouse instinct. The good use of the inner criterion promotes conscious restraint.
'The Criterion' and 'Discernment' might contrast in meaning, but they are not the same.
Discernment is inner, personal-built unbiased rules which a person uses to measure their daily choices and the future consequences that come with them. While the criterion is inner law embedded at the soul level restraining corruption when emotion pushes otherwise.
Discernment is personally born in your heart as you grow, done with a righteous mindset. They are the spiritually conscious questions you ask yourself while making choices.
Whereas, criterion is naturally embedded inside every human like a rule of law, letting you naturally know what is wrong and right from your conscience and reason as you grow.
When discernment is trained and anchored with the proper use of the naturally embedded criterion, the following questions would arise in our heart during decision times and when indulging in any activity.
You learn to build and to automatically ask these questions:
-- "Does this choice or practice foster peace among humanity and for my self or build up anxiety?"
-- "Does it reflect love and selflessness, or ego and wickedness?"
-- "Can I still boldly return to it tomorrow without fear of facing punishment from Allah SWT; because it it a right path?"
-- "Am I making this choice to receive good reward from Allah SWT in the nearest future; on earth and in the Hereafter, or am I making my choices without accountability to what I might receive from Allah SWT, following my own assumptions?"
-- "When I am gone, when I am here no more, will this practice/indulgence/path I am taking keep a good legacy for me and my offsprings among my peers and the people of the society, or a bad legacy that only return curse and multiplication of punishments to me in the grave?"
-- "When I am gone, when I am here no more, can my offspring peacefully enjoy what I am struggling to gather with this path I am taking to earn a living without facing consequences from Allah SWT; except good rewards?"
-- "Will this practice/indulgence/choice plant light, guidance, and the sincere fear of Allah SWT in the heart of generations unborn, letting them see the benefits of working on earth for the good rewards of the Hereafter? Or will it plant a seed of corruption and disobedience in the heart of generations unborn and become a chain of distortion, letting them justify, commonize, and indulge in practices that only eventually leads into an Inescapable punishment of Allah SWT on earth and in the Hereafter?"
-- "Is what I am doing today leading me toward eternal life with Allah after death, or does it distance me from the blessings of my Creator while I call it enjoyment or survival?"
-- "Does this choice align me with Divine guidance and obedience to the words of Allah SWT, or will acceptance of this choice/indulgence put me among the heedless disbelievers with a blind heart who are led astray by Allah SWT while they know it not and think their choice is rightly guided?"
-- "Does this increase barakah and blessings from Allah, or only increase earthly appearance while I pile up inescapable punishment for my unseen future self?"
-- "Does this indulgence purify my lineage or burden it with the misalignment of my choices?"
-- "Are these deeds in line with the teachings of the Holy Quran and the truthful scriptures that came through the prophets or is it cloaked in ancestral error-rooted belief system?"
-- "Am I building toward eternal life with Allah SWT with this life and choices, or will I face the wrath of Allah SWT on the Day of Judgement for neglecting the teachings of Allah SWT, if certain death meets me in this act?"
-- "Am I among those exerting real effort for the reward of the Hereafter with sincere, fervent prayer and good work, or am I among those who wander blindly in error and spread corruption upon the earth's surface while they think they are on the right path and rightly guided?"
-- "Are these choices, deeds, belief systems i am holding on to, that I am indulging in today; in line with Divine order? Are they pushing me into alignment for my highest good and good purpose to humanity which naturally brings Divine upliftment? Are they building a future of peace, Divine blessings, righteousness, and eternal rest for myself and my possible offsprings? Or are they leading me away from alignment with Divine order, into disbelief, defiant disobedience, and negligence of divine role and accountability, where I trade my eternity for temporary earthly desires and the enjoyment of delusion; and eventually become worthy of the punishment of the Hellfire?"
-- "When I slip and make a mistake against Allah SWT like humans do, do I return quickly with repentance, or do I harden my heart, go deeper into error, and walk the earth in self‑exaltation while persisting in sin?"
-- "will I be proud of this indulgence when I am eventually shown my record wide open, on The Day of Accountability?
-- "What has Allah said concerning this matter?"
-- "Does this desire bring me nearer to Allah or farther from Him?"
-- "Am I seeking immediate relief at the expense of eternal benefit?"
-- "Is my judgment being clouded by fear, anger, lust, pride, greed, or impatience?"
-- "What will this choice become if pursued to its end?"
-- "Would I be pleased to meet Allah having made this choice?"
These discerning questions during choices and indulgence are what gradually build the soul and the heart in a way that they are both consciously attuned to living to maintain Divine balance.
More concretely, a person with discernment:
-- Sees distinctions others miss (not just "good vs. bad," but "good vs. almost good but not right for this context").
-- Knows what to weigh most heavily in a messy situation.
-- Arrives at a judgment that proves sound over time, even when the evidence was unclear at first.
-- Avoids both naivety and cynicism, landing on a nuanced truth.
The Criterion and the discerning questions) are supposed to work together in every human, hand in hand, bringing spiritual, psychological, physical, and emotional alignment as you journey toward your return to Allah SWT.
In truth, many descendants of Adam AS knowingly choose evil indulgence and avoid discerning the future outcome of their indulgence because it make them uncomfortable. They fear to face the truth about their own indulgence early, till they eventually face their future nearer punishment for their disobedient choices or meet death while still indulging in sin without offering sincere repentance; which only makes the situation way worse than the punishment on earth.
When discernment is active in the heart and connected to the uncompromised criterion in the soul, the soul remains conscious of where it is heading, because it remains connected to Allah SWT at heart and spiritually attuned to truth. That is why, these naturally embedded criterion can only be compromised by our blind deeds, defiantly disobedient choices, corruption‑rooted practices, arrogance, and greed, led by the inclination of the ego‑self toward beautified illusions of this worldly life. And such a situation can only take effect when you lose the sincere fear of Allah SWT in your choices; which are the discerning laws you have failed to build around your heart to protect you from the fleeting desires of the ego‑self that only bring temporary enjoyment and plenty of future inescapable punishment, both on earth and in the Hereafter.
When discernment in choices is abandoned, the inner criterion is slowly compromised by continuously justifying minor wrongdoing until it lead eventually into justifying major ones for monetary gain or temporary pleasure or protection.
When you lose the sincere fear of Allah SWT in your choices, in your daily indulgence, in your decisions, you have thereby forgotten Allah SWT.
The forgetting of Allah SWT is where the derailment begin. You forget Allah SWT in your daily indulgence, you detach yourself from truth which effectively lead to the ineffective use of the inner criterion and eventually to the justification and normalization of sinful practices for gain or for temporary pleasure or to escape adversity.
When you drift into continous wrongdoing while suppressing the inner conscience(criterion) that advises you against it, the strength of the discernment questions to anchor your future choices also weaken.
When the criterion becomes suppressed, corruption becomes easier to indulge in and easily justified. But you see, when the inner criterion is not compromised with justified sin, disbelief, or disobedience, it becomes a light, a trainer, a guide, the spiritual strength that increases the attunement with your discernment questions and let you sail across this earthly journey amid the vast ocean of beautified worldly illusions without drowning in it. You live, earn, pray, and grow peacefully without accepting indulgence in distortion and without facing troubles; except tests of faith from Allah SWT.
"And why is it important to practice holistic discernment, fervent prayer, and maintain an uncompromised criterion in ourselves; and teach it to offspring from childhood?"
One very big tragedy is that, many individuals in our today generation who knowingly or unknowingly indulge in cycles of sin, evil, and corruption-rooted practices are already deep into the path of future inevitable destruction brought upon their soul by their own misguided choices; for themselves or against others; while they perceive it not. Whereas, countless people from among the former people also died on this path, worthy of punishment in the Hereafter.
It is the justification of disobedience and the normalization of sinful practices by the society and many people from among the former people that made many individual in our today generation heedless to repentance and reject truth when it is made clear to them while they sink deeper into destruction continuously beautified by the devil they cannot see.
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P.T.O.