Triple Filter Test........

**Helena** · 08-06-2006

another thread for u all to view it inshalah....very useful indeed...

During the golden Abbasid period, one of the scholars in Baghdad,
the capital of Muslim caliphate at that time, was reputed to hold
knowledge in high esteem.

One day an acquaintance met the great
scholar and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," the scholar replied. "Before telling me anything
I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter
Test." "Triple filter?""That's right," the scholar continued.

"Before you talk to me about my friend it might be a good idea to
take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call
it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made
absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" "No,"
the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right,"
said the scholar. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now
let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are
about to tell me about my friend something good?" "No, on the
contrary..."

"So," the scholar continued, "you want to tell me
something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may
still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the
filter of Usefulness.

Is what you want to tell me about my friend
going to be useful to me?" "No, not really.""Well," concluded the
scholar, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor
even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

"O you who believe! Avoid
most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is a sin, and
do not spy nor let some of you backbite others. Does one of you like
to eat the flesh of his dead brother? But you abhor it; and be
careful of (your duty to) Allah, surely Allah is Oft-returning (to
mercy), Merciful." [Surah al-Hujurat 49:12]

any thoughts.....