Triple filter(email from Tok asid)

..This from my friend Tokasid Melaka....
very interesting articles
and i would like
to share it with all the readers and bloggers.....


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]