Before entrusting someone with some responsibility or getting into a partnership or relationship, it is always better to know the person. It would be difficult to know about the person completely as they would be meeting them for the first time. It is also very easy to fake qualities and etiquette when the meeting is short. The true character of an individual would only emerge when they encounter certain situations. One of the sayings of Caliph Umar would help us understand as to how people could be tested.
Once Umar asked about a man who had given testimony, wanting to find out whether anyone could vouch for him. A man said to him, “I will vouch for him, O Ameer Al-Momineen.” Umar asked, “Are you his neighbour?” He said, “No.” He then asked, “Did you do any business transaction with him?” He said, “No.” He asked next, “Did you travel with him?” He said, “No.” Umar said, “Perhaps you saw him in the mosque, standing, sitting and praying?” He said, “Yes.” Umar said, “Go away, for you do not know him.”
ASPECTS OF TESTING
The following are the various aspects of testing a person:
- Neighbour
Neighbour refers to a person or family who is living next door or very close to the person’s house. After the family members, the next category of people who would know a person better is the neighbours, as they happen to see the person mostly every day and they would be aware of his activities, day in and day out. A person who has failed to be a good neighbour will fail to be a good human being, because if he does not care for the people next to him then how would he care for others.
When a person is a neighbour, he would come to know about his relationship with his parents, siblings and children, about the type of friends he has, about his habits, about the topic of discussion, about his nature, behaviour and attitude. Whenever one is seeking for an alliance for his son, daughter, brother, sister, etc., the neighbours would be the best people to give you a good opinion.
- Business Transaction
Business transaction refers to business activity which involves any kind of buying and selling. Man is greedy, materialistic and wants to become rich, and when it comes to money there are high chances that man would do something wrong and unethical to get more and the one who controls his desires and chooses to be on the right path can be considered to be a person of great character. Assessing people based on their business transactions would be one of the best methods to identify the integrity, morality and honesty of a person.
When a person has done any kind of business transaction, he would come to know how honest he is, whether he lies or speaks the truth, how does he treat his employees and subordinates, does he pay the due on time, does he return the borrowed money on time, does he get angry soon, do his actions match his words, how does he treat people when they make mistakes, etc. Before giving credit to someone or indulging in a business transaction, it would be better to take the opinion of someone who has already done any kind of business activity with them.
iii. Travelling
Travelling refers to going from one place to another; it can be by car, train, plane or ship. Travelling is not an easy task, as one has to come out of his comfort zone when he is travelling. Even today when travelling has become easy, it still remains a tedious task. When one comes out of his comfort zone, there are high changes that his real personality would come out. Generally when people are in their comfort zone they tend to behave very normally, but when they are not in their comfort zone their true colour would come to light.
When a person has done some travelling with another person, he would know whether he is generous or a spendthrift, whether he gets angry easily, whether he thanks people, the places where he spends money, his consistency in mind, how he spends his time, on what topic does he discuss on, whether he behaves differently with different people, how does he treat others who make mistakes around him, about his bad habits like smoking, etc. When a person is being appointed to a particular position, it is important to know his character and one of the best ways to know a person’s character is to travel with him.
It is very important to test a person before indulging in any kind of relationship, transaction or responsibility. It would be better to test the person, so that we would not regret our decision at a later stage. Sometimes reversing the decision would also not be possible or it would be very difficult to cancel the contract once we enter into it. The quote of Caliph Umar gives us a very simple method which could be adopted to test the character of the person. It would be difficult to find a person who is a neighbour, has done business transactions and with whom he has travelled, so at least one aspect should be taken into consideration to take the decision.
[Syed Kazim is working as Assistant Professor at Acharya Bangalore B School, Bengaluru. He can be contacted at [email protected]]