Islamic Stories: For Muslims and non-Muslims.

The Triple Filter Test

Triple Filter
〰〰〰〰〰〰

In ancient Persia, a person met the great Saadi one day and said,

"Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Saadi 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," Saadi 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 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 Saadi. "So you don't 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," Saadi 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 Saadi, "If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
____________________________
May Allah help us remember this triple filter each time we hear loose talk about any of our near and dear ones.