The Triple Filter from
http://dailyhadith.adaptiv
Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Keep away from ill-thinking/suspicions because ill-thinking is the greatest falsehood.” [Bukhari]
During the golden Abbasid period, one of the scholars in Baghdad, the capital of the 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?"
Scholar: "Hold on a minute, before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
The Man: "Triple Filter Test?"
Scholar: "That's right, 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?"
The Man: "No, actually I just heard about it and ..."
Scholar: "All right, 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?"
The Man: "No, on the contrary..."
Scholar: "So, 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?"
The Man: "No, not really."
Scholar: "Well, if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
Allah tells us in the Quran: "O you who believe! Avoid much suspicions, indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh (meat) of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who accepts repentance, Most Merciful." [49:12]
Abu Bakr (radi Allahu anhu) would keep a stone in his mouth so he could not speak without giving himself time to think first. Let's pass our intended speech through the triple filter test before we madly utter our every thought. And lets subject others to the triple filter test too before we hear any damaging number of things from them.
Note to ponder...
by Kay Kamal
Don't we all go through this kind of situation in our life??
Friend talking about other friend, about a situation they're in and so on....
Should this situation arise in the future, I will try to remind myself about this triple filter test, inshaAllah.
The hadith aboved made me realised that this is one of my principle in friendship/relationship, not to talk behind my friends back and should I have an issue with him/her, I will try to resolve and communicate with him/her directly.
As a human being, I can't escape from my own weaknesses. For that I asked Allah forgiveness and to guide me to the right path.
To all my friends, yes I'm sure we all have experience backbiting, suspicious at one point of our life.
Most of the times, when we tell other friends about 'a friend'... we're seeking for a comfort, an opinion or an agreement of our act in the circumstances we're in. We fail to go back to basic, which is to deal with 'the friend' directly. (which I see it as the root of the problem).
I wonder what makes someone fail to see this???
Is it ego or fear of the truth or ....???? Or is it our perception towards them and our past experience clouded our mind??
what goes around comes around.....
Sadly many of us decide to move on or not dealing with it.
I must always look at myself and hoping that I will be a better person as each day passed by.
Good times become good memories and bad time become good lesson...
For all my friends who has approached me directly to clear one's doubt, thank you so much and I really appreciate it.
I truly treasure your friendship. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being you.
For the rest of my friends, should you have any doubt about me or my friendship, please do approach me directly.
