The purpose of practicing discernment in choices goes beyond many explanations, but teaching it to offspring without distortion is one of the most basic reasons. Practicing discernment in our daily choices and teaching it to kids is not to deny destiny, but to align each deed with Divine order as we grow.
To prevent future preventable harm before they go into society or get influenced by disbelievers and defiantly disobedient peers.
Helping them know:
How to make use of their inner criterion in deeds and indulgence without justifying disobedient practices that contradict the commandments of Allah SWT.
How they return sincerely and quickly when they slip, and how they return fervently in prayer daily with the sincere fear of Allah SWT.
With discernment alive, the soul remains conscious because it remains connected, because discernment in choices help align a person's journey with the path Allah SWT had decreed for them; and aid them to grow into purposeful adults.
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said:
"Command your children to pray when they are seven, and discipline them for it when they are ten." (Abu Dawud)
Why so early? Because their "approaching day" (certain death) could approach sooner than anyone expects.
So teaching a child:
- who Allah is,
- how to pray sincerely and fervently,
- what is right and wrong,
- that death is real,
- that Paradise and Hell are real
...is not "burdening" them.
It is equipping them on how their soul return to Allah SWT; on a journey that could end before they turn Ten or Eighteen.
If holistic discernment and sincere fear of Allah in choices is anchored in the hearts of every child from childhood through their parents' own discernment and fervent prayer; be you a leader or a follower, many forms of loss, corrupting, and injustice in the country will diminish. The ability to reshape and compromise the inner criterion by social beliefs and peer influence would be locked out before the children begin to mingle with peers from other walks of life. Fewer lives would be destroyed by avoidable choices learned early.
When children are raised with holistic discernment, fervent prayer, and sincere fear of Allah in choices from childhood, society becomes safer. Families endure. Mercy finds clearer paths through human hands. And the Divine love Allah has decreed to flow among humanity; seamlessly from one person to another; would flow without disruption.
Without compromising the criterion for continuous sinful indulgence, the discerning questions get the unwavering advantage to root deeper into our heart and act as spiritual shield that protect the soul by naturally reject evil indulgence as we grow.
Across generations, people invent lies about Allah SWT. They involve in what will benefit them regardless of the spiritual consequences. They take false deities and saints and messengers of Allah SWT and holy servants of Allah SWT and prophets and their fellow creations as intermediaries and intercessors with Allah SWT. They take the commandments of Allah SWT as outdated. They chose to remain steadfast on the path of corruption and reject truth because of what society has influenced in their heart and what has been justified and considered normal; of sin; by those before them, while they fail to build the discerning questions that would have polished the naturally embedded Criterion to uprightness and realign them to the path of divine guidance.
Instead many chose to obey: their own desire, their justification of sin for gain, the beautified temptations and illusions of their devil companion, and obey their own assumptions and think they can escape accountability for their deeds and indulgence. Satan becomes their constant companion, whispering that their path is correct.
Allah SWT will guide man to the way, whether they are grateful or ungrateful; that is the job of the embedded criteria/criterion. But man will surely be tested (with wealth, children, triumph, Adversities: poverty, hardship, loss, sickness).
And it is the love for instant gratification, the spiritual disease of ignorance and the test of adversity; which is meant to help purify the soul and bring it closest to Allah SWT in obedience, devotion, worship, and faithfulness; in conjunction with an undiscerning heart that serves as the chain of derailment for many of the descendants of Adam who slipped into error and disobedience to the commandments of Allah SWT whole trying to escape the adversity that has meet them so they chose instant benefit with future Inescapable consequences.
Across generations, what many fail to realize is that, because Allah SWT gave the descendants of Adam the gift of freewill, that is why the result of Hereafter is not merely a future punishment or reward.
It is actively shaped by our present conduct (act of polytheism), defiant disobedience, disbelieve, evil deeds, good deeds, act of selflessness, devotion, sincere fervent prayer, act of heedlessness, act of arrogance, good work, excessive desire.
The forefather effect is what made the indulgence in disobedience, evil, and corruption-rooted practices feel sacred to those who accept it. While the devil they obey and patronize like the former people makes the disobedience feel right. They use their gift of freewill to instead devoutly follow the guidance of the devil. Many further compromise the inner criterion to replace the direct worship of Allah SWT with intermediaries and what does not (benefit) them except with burden on their soul and they replace the commandments of Allah SWT with what they can control and continuously justify it and pass it to offsprings or other members of the society; where they all accept and indulge because of enjoyment of worldly life or instant gratification; while they think they are rightly guided.
The Criterion for Discernment therefore is not emotion. Neither is it culture. Nor popularity. Nor personal preference. Emotions inform us, but discerning questions govern us. Discernment begins when the soul submits its immediate desires to the uncompromised criterion of Allah's guidance.
The Criterion becomes the measuring rod through which emotions, desires, and impulses are examined.
In this framework:
Love is not automatically good.
Hatred is not automatically justified.
Difficulty is not automatically evil.
Ease is not automatically mercy.
Delay is not automatically rejection.
Success is not automatically approval.
Suffering is not automatically punishment.
Rather, all these experiences must be weighed against the uncompromised criterion established by Allah SWT.
Impatience for divine timing is the root from which the love of instant gratification grows; and the love of instant gratification often leads people to sacrifice greater future rewards for smaller immediate ones. impatience is not merely a personality flaw. It is a spiritual vulnerability.
And patience is not merely waiting. It is trusting Allah long enough to allow hidden wisdom to unfold. The human soul often mistakes pleasure for goodness and discomfort for evil. Discernment is the ability to see beyond the immediacy of desire and trust the wisdom of Allah SWT, whose knowledge encompasses what our limited sight cannot perceive.
Allah SWT says:
"But you prefer the worldly life, while the Hereafter is better and more enduring." (Quran 87:16–17)
The issue is not enjoying halal blessings. Islam does not call people to misery.
Rather, the issue is making the immediate the measure of all decisions.
The believer asks:
"What will this choice become?"
The impatient soul asks:
"What will this choice give me right now?"
impatience says:
"I want relief now."
Instant gratification says:
"Then take whatever gives it to you."
Discernment says:
"Wait. Consider the end."
The Qur'an repeatedly trains believers to think beyond the present moment because many thing human naturally crave are what offers immediate reward:
unlawful relationships, arrogance,
revenge, intoxicating pleasures,
wealth gained unjustly, disobedience, abandoning obligations, neglecting worship, laziness disguised as comfort.
"But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not." (Quran 2:216)
Criterion is not fully formed knowledge of every moral question, but an embedded capacity that inclines the soul toward recognizing truth when it encounters it. Criterion is what Allah has placed within every soul; discernment is what each soul chooses to build upon that foundation.
The deeper insightful question this book asks is:
What if the things we resent most are the very things through which Allah is guiding us?
A child hates medicine. But the medicine heals him.
A student hates studying. But knowledge elevates him.
An athlete hates disciplined training. But discipline strengthens him.
A believer may dislike waking for Fajr. But Fajr nourishes his soul.
A wealthy person may dislike paying Zakah. But Zakah purifies wealth and softens the heart.
A young person may dislike lowering the gaze and restraining desires. But restraint protects dignity, families, and future peace.
A person may resent delays in marriage, employment, success, or answered prayers. Yet those delays may save him from destruction he cannot perceive.
Know that, "Impatience is the ancestor of the love for instant gratification."
The question to discern the future outcome of your choice/indulgence, backed by an uncompromised criterion evolve from the heart and is implemented before action; because action comes after decision-making, and the spiritual clarity to accept the truth/arriving-answer filtered out by the discerning questions comes from first allowing the truth to circulate through your soul.
The deeper implication is that many human failures are not born from evil intentions but from an inability to wait. A person may know what is right yet still choose what is wrong because: the reward of the wrong path is immediate, while the reward of the right path requires patience. If the heart is not trained with discerning questions toward our daily indulgence, whatever deeds the embedded criterion in your soul has justified for indulgence is thereby accepted by your heart as the truth; be it evil or good, and the discerning question toward that deed/indulgence is locked out of your heart; even if it could harm your future. Worse still, when the heart accepts indulgence in disobedient practices and persist in it, these practices will be less treated as harm by your brain. At this juncture of continuous indulgence the heart; which is the eye of the soul; slowly accumulate the dusts of corruption until blinds into hard-heartedness, where such a person will not be able to reason toward what is right and what is truth except with the Mercy of Allah SWT, and they can only continue to seek means from whatever will bring instant benefit and means to escape the reality of sincere repentance away from those deeds even if they meet nearer punishments. But they have no knowledge that it is their devil companion that is slowly inciting them to senselessness and they instead use their gift of freewill to continuously chose evil and disobedience to the commandments of Allah SWT until they meet certain death.
Allah gives the human soul:
fitrah, conscience, reason, free will. These form the criterion. But you do not know enough to make your immediate emotions the ultimate criterion of truth. Rather, discernment (uncompromised) is built by asking the right questions through the lens of uncompromised criterion anchored in obedience to the commandments of Allah SWT.
Through:
revelation, sincere reflection, experience, repentance, worship, knowledge, and sincere striving, a person develops discernment.
That discernment asks:
Why do I desire this?
What will this choice become?
Does this align with Allah's commands?
Am I being driven by impatience, fear, pride, or sincerity?
Would I be content meeting Allah with this decision?
These questions are not automatically present in a mature form.
They are cultivated.
And perhaps that is the tragedy of many people described in the Qur'an: they did not lack intelligence or feelings; they simply enthroned their desires where only Allah's guidance should have been the judge.
This gift of freewill is the reason why the final rewards and the consequences for every good deed, act of love and selflessness, wrongdoings, disobedience, heedlessness, evil indulgence, injustice, corrupt alliance, act of hypocrisy, or betrayal in this worldly life move toward a Day of total unveiling.
A Day when the soul itself testifies to what it earned when it was alive; before Allah SWT.
Those who are grateful to Allah SWT and discern their choices during times of ease and hardship, who remained patient, sincere, and mindful of their return to Allah SWT will find that their efforts are appreciated by Allah SWT on the Day of Accountability, while those that offended, slipped, divulged into sin, and repented sincerely and returned to alignment will find their own record, while those who live as though they will never return to Allah SWT will ultimately discover the reality they have always denied.
When the Discerning questions and the embedded criterion work together without compromise, it automatically aligns our soul with choices that prepare us for the good rewards of a Day when everything will be exposed.
A Day when secrets are tried, and no one can help another.
The only thing that saves that Day is sincere, fervent daily prayers to Allah SWT alone, your righteous deeds, your obedience to the commandments of Allah SWT, and constant returns after minor slips; while you were alive.
In other words:
Criterion gives us the judge. Discernment trains the judge.
Criterion gives us the compass. Discernment teaches us how to read it.
Criterion is potential. Discernment is practice.
Criterion is implanted. Discernment is developed.
The Criterion for Discernment teaches that the human soul is created, guided, tested, and carried through this temporary world toward an inevitable return to Allah SWT, where every sincere effort will be appreciated and every forgotten responsibility will be unveiled.
Discernment is what let you recognize the difference between the whispers of the devils and the divine inspiration. It let us know that life is not about success or failure in worldly terms. It is about whether the soul reaches Allah having remained faithful to its purpose. Everything else is secondary: the wealth, the status, the comfort, the applause, the hardship, the losses, the gains. They are all temporary scenes within the journey.
A criterion is only useful if it stands outside of us.
If the criterion is our fluctuating emotions, then truth changes whenever our feelings change. But if the criterion is anchored in Divine revelation, then even when our emotions tremble, our compass remains fixed.
The Criterion and Discernment together both advice the soul to self‑accountability in actions. Helping them to distinguish between minor human error and extreme corruption, while urging alignment with Allah's guidance through sincere worship and righteous living.
The Criterion for Discernment serves as a compass, a navigator, and a travel guide for our soul; to guide our efforts, correct intention, restrain desire, and advise us to uprightness as we sail across our earthly journey, while avoiding indulgence in beautified illusions of the worldly life and the enjoyment of delusion; till certain death at the uncertain hour.
The Criterion for Discernment reminds you that: You were created from nothing, given guidance, placed on earth for a test, and now you are laboring toward return to your Lord. The world is temporary and filled with illusions and delusions. The real question is whether you will be grateful and strive (fulfilling vows, charity, constant remembrance, patience) or love the immediate (worldly life) and turn away (forget the accountability of the Hereafter). On the Day of Judgment, the records will speak, the two groups (the good and the evil) will be separated forever, and every soul will receive exactly what it earned; with perfect justice, and no wrong will be done.
The Criterion for Discernment reminds us that mercy of Allah SWT is real for those who return sincerely. Effort is appreciated. The righteous will have beauty, comfort, and nearness beyond imagination. But the choice is yours, and the meeting with Allah SWT is certain.
The deepest discerning question is:
Does our soul remember where it came from and to whom it is going to return; and with what it is returning? Because death can come at an uncertain hour and no man knows in what land he or she will die.
You will gain deeper insights on holistic discernment, building the internal discerning questions, and keeping the embedded criterion aligned and inclined to truth always; without compromise and without accepting distortion; through the lives of different characters across the pages of this book.
As you read across the pages of this book:
-- You will witness, through the lens of different characters, what it truly means to strive through adversity while anchored in fervent prayer and discernment (the sincere fear of Allah SWT) in choices. Because their stories are not merely fiction. They are mirrors.
-- You will witness how small compromises quietly evolve into generational inherited belief systems.
-- You will see how discernment either preserves a lineage or fractures it, and the amazing truth; it all begins from the leaders of the house; The male child.
-- You will understand what happens when Holistic discernment, sincere fear of Allah SWT in choices, and fervent prayer is cultivated early in children; alongside patience in dealing with other humans, and lawful striving to navigate life's trials, adversities, and hardships. How families are preserved before fractures of error-rooted thoughts begin forming in the society.
-- You will encounter how, when a blind belief system is passed down to offspring without discernment, the inner Criterion of such person becomes automatically compromised to justifying other wrongdoings, culture and custom even if blind/evil begin to speak louder than spiritual truth. Which make most of the people born generations later grow with the mindset that what they inherited must be right simply because it is ancient. Even if these people are wrong and they know it; because their embedded conscience continue to judge them when truth is brought to them, many still protect that blind belief or that wrong choice with their life because it is a normalized belief/practice from among the former people, even if it was wrong and evil and sinful as a way.
-- You will understand more about the Inescapable punishments of Allah SWT.
-- You will observe how unholy ties, blind allegiance, and corruption‑rooted alliances gradually lead many people into an inescapable ruin while they perceive it not, and they rest assured they are rightly guided.
-- You will understand how striving through adversity and hardship with fervent daily prayers, obedience and patience in Divine timing, observing fasting, trusting in Allah SWT, indulging in lawful hustle, upholding justice among others, and making the sincere fear of Allah SWT the anchor of your heart; bring one favor and uninterrupted blessings from Allah SWT during adverse times, and also serves as the lighthouse and a beacon that illuminates the person's path, guiding them into a future of bounty and good rewards from Allah, both on earth and in the Hereafter.
-- You will gain insights into different spiritual consequences that lurk untouched and usually unseen in the future of those who escape adversity and hard times by indulging in deeds and practices that contradict the commandments of Allah SWT to earn a living, for temporary support, or for pleasure. Examples: bribery, hypocrisy, unholy alliance, usury, prostitution, internet fraud, ritual killing, embezzlement, tyranny, polytheistic practices, pickpocketing, highway robbery, kidnapping, etc.
-- You will gain insight into different emotional awakenings of the heart toward romantic connections: from the native soulmate's heart‑level connection, to the rare twin flame's soul‑level connection, to the casual fleeting romance that tends to feed only pleasure and gradually destroys the soul. You will learn the difference between love that leads to temporary attachment and entering a covenant written with divine witness. THE RIPPLE OF UNHOLY INTIMACIES on FUTURE MARRIAGE and the Restoration of Purposeful Union.
-- You will gain insights into the ENMITY AND DEVIATIONS religion diversification has caused AMONG HUMANS.
-- You will understand how the avoidance of immorality, staying chaste, practicing restraint, guarding your body, lowering your gaze, praying fervently, and steering clear of fleeting desires; be you male or female; protect sacred knowledge, heighten spiritual awareness, sharpen perception, purify the heart, keep one aligned with their divine purpose as they grow, and how it has, more often than not, kept people in alignment with a purposeful partner who matches their spiritual vibration.
-- You will gain insights into the worldly and eternal rewards attached to entering a romantic relationship with the intention of starting a God‑fearing branch of family on earth, and with the sincere fear of Allah SWT, obedience to the commandments of Allah SWT, and accountability to Allah SWT as the anchor of your heart and the foundation of your future home.
-- You will understand how indulgence in immorality and unholy intimacies silently diminishes the light of the soul, blinds the heart, and derails people from their destined path and the path of purpose on earth; while they perceive it not.
-- You will gain insights into the different punishments of Allah SWT that are eligible for people who indulge in disobedient practices without sincere repentance; for indulging in deeds against the commandments of Allah SWT.
-- You will understand how different ancestral error‑rooted belief systems rippled into our today society, tainted and compromised the inner criterion of many, and became the bedrock for the blind acceptance, normalization, and justification of sinful practices in our today society. Erroneous belief systems that countless people have died inside of, not knowing the weight of what they carry into the Hereafter.
-- You will understand how greed and unaccountability in the leadership sector can bring collective suffering upon the people of a society; affecting both the guilty and the innocent alike.
-- You will also understand the vital importance of choosing sincere repentance, obedience, seeking forgiveness, and returning to alignment with Divine order after you have erred or disobeyed the commandments of Allah.
______
Know that the choices and lessons you will come across in the lives of different characters as you journey through this novel might be:
-- what you already know; because you have once lived through it; but never paused to fully examine and extract its lessons;
-- what you never had knowledge of, until now;
-- what you have long felt stirring in your heart, but struggled to give clear structure or understanding.
So I pray Allah grants us sufficient wisdom and understanding to recognise the good within these pages, and to carry it into our daily lives.
Āmīn.