THE CRITERION'

Two separate lives. Two different cities. One destiny.

Jamal ran away from Nur Afiya on a night that almost destroyed him. A night when betrayal and violation crept too close to reality.
For nine long years, he wandered through nights and cities, mending his soul with prayer; beneath the skies of a town that had normalized sin.
Through faith, work, and quiet surrender, he rebuilt himself piece by piece.

But healing carries its own mystery.
Without knowing, Jamal's soul work had stirred awake something sacred in the unseen. A divine romantic connection written into his destiny long before his birth.

Then came the visions: a woman, unknown yet deeply familiar, haunting his dreams with silent longing.
Believing them to be signs of mercy, he returned to Nur Afiya, seeking answers from his old shaykh.

Yet, just hours after returning to the town he had sworn never to see again, fate greeted him with the ghost of his past.
Rofiya; his former lover, reappeared with a dying child she claimed needed his blood to survive.
A boy he had never known existed.
Unaware to Jamal, he now stood at the edge of a revelation long buried in the shadows.

Meanwhile, far north in Marhaba, Aamina had long sealed her heart against love.
A devastating heartbreak had taught her to guard it fiercely, not until a soulfully familiar, mysterious stranger began visiting her dreams.

Just as she began awakening to what felt like her destined connection, her grandmother arranged her marriage to Chief Muhammad; a man of wealth and influence, yet utterly deaf to the quiet whisper of her soul.

The Criterion is a soul-piercing blend of mystery, romance, and spiritual awakening. A tale where faith and desire collide, and the battle for love becomes the battle for the soul itself.