Fwd’ing
Try this Triple Filter Test especially when talking to peers and relatives. Insh’Allah, it will reduce the amount of juicy gossips that eventually lead to disasters (fitnah).
Read this…
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?”
“I put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving creature, but He has a grasp of its forelock. Verily, my Lord is on the straight path. (The truth)”
(11:55-56)
“…Indeed my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allaah, the Lord of the worlds” (6:162)