Significance and Reflection
Everyday, billions of people wake up, start their day and get busy in their activities. That is what one would call a *normal* day of a living human being, everyone performs some form of action or another. Actions are very powerful means of expression. In life, a person’s actions are representations of who they are, so representative that he or she is defined by them. Yet, why is it common to see people persisting in actions that they themselves consider bad, and carrying them out while consciously trying to abstain from them? Is there something so greatly influential that controls a person’s actions, their manifest being, even above their own conscious decision? The answer is yes!
In fact, the reality is that the majority of one’s actions are not the result of his or her own conscious choice, rather they are reactions to the individual’s environment.
“Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour“
James clear
The Environment’s Subtle Effect on The Subconscious
As James Clear mentions in his book Atomic Habits, an example of this is when Anne Thorndike, a primary care physician in Boston, had the grand, “naïve” belief that she could positively change the eating habits of the thousands of staff and visitors who made purchases from the cafeteria everyday, all while not even minutely changing their willpower and motivation. Her idea materialized into a very well known incident which demonstrates the nature of human behaviour.
The Atomic Change
Initially, the refrigerators were all placed near the cash register in the cafeteria, and solely contained sodas. She and her team added water as an option in each, and in addition, placed new baskets loaded with bottles of water near every food station. The cafeteria still had the same refrigerators, filled with the same sodas, except that water was now easily available to everyone. Within three months, the sales of the sodas dropped by 11.4 percent, while sales of bottled water increased by a strong 25.8 percent, demonstrating the desired change. Similar modifications were made to the menu and had similar positive results. Thus, Dr. Thorndike and her team redesigned the cafeteria in almost unnoticeable ways, yet yielded unparalleled and noticeable results.
One may think of these subtle modifications as obvious, and it is simple proof of the effects of the surrounding environment. Also, despite the changes being subtle, the human being, a perfect example of Allah The Almighty’s unparalleled engineering prowess, is able to pick up even the minute cues of an environment.
The Innate Ability of Humans
Every living thing has a way to perceive and sense the world around them. Snakes can smell by “tasting the air” with their highly sensitive tongues, and eagles have remarkable long range vision. In the case of humans, Allah The Almighty has designed them in a way that they perceive the world through the sensory nervous system, and the strongest of those is vision. The human body has about 11 million sensory receptors, from which approximately 10 million are for sight alone. Some experts estimate that half of the brain’s resources are used on vision. This is why visual cues are the greatest catalysts of our behaviour. For this reason, a small change in what you see can greatly affect what you do. Thus, it is unequivocally important to be in an environment replete with productive cues, and devoid of unproductive ones.
A Pearl of Wisdom : The Story of a Murderer
From one of the blessed ahadith of Rasulullah ﷺ comes a story with immense wisdom and profound meanings. It is narrated to the effect that there was once a certain man who had committed one of the biggest sins : Murder. Not only one, but a startling ninety-nine murders! Feeling greatly remorseful and desiring forgiveness, he sought the advice of a monk, someone he considered knowledgeable. After confessing his murderous streak and the total number of victims, the monk exclaimed that the murder of a striking number of 99 people was unforgivable and that the man would never be forgiven. Enraged, the man then killed the monk, completing 100 killings.
Now, realizing what he had just done and drowning in guilt and remorse, he presented himself to a scholar of the area, explaining his situation to him and asking him the same question he asked the monk. The scholar informed him that he can surely be forgiven, as Allah’s mercy is the most vast. However, the scholar also laid down some instructions for the man’s rectification, and advised him to depart from his current city, as it was a bad place, and to go live in such and such city, where the people were devoted to prayer and worship of Allah, and instructed him to engage in good actions along with them. The man set out for the good city.
It so happened that his decreed time of death was written to pass during his journey, and so he passed away before reaching the good city. Upon his death, angels of punishment came, intending to bring his Rooh (soul) to Jahannam, and similarly the angels of mercy came, intending to bring the soul to Jannah. They had a dispute amongst them, the angels of punishment arguing that the man had killed 100 people, and thus he was to be taken by them, whereas the angels of mercy argued that he had made sincere intention and effort for forgiveness and thus was to be taken to Paradise.
Allah The Almighty and Majestic, in his infinite wisdom, sent a third angel to mediate between the two groups. The third angel proposed the following resolution : If the man was closer to the initial city i.e. the bad one, then he was to be taken by the angels of torment, and if he was closer to the good city, he would be taken by the angels of mercy. Thus the land was measured, and in one narration, the man was nearer to the good city. However, in another narration, the man died while nearer to the original city, but Allah The Almighty and Majestic commanded the distance between him and the original city to lengthen and the distance between him and the good city to shorten, resulting in him being taken by the angels of mercy.
Of the many lessons one can draw from the story, one is the instruction of the scholar, advising the man to surround himself with good people, and to thereby benefit from them and engage with them in the good actions that they were devoted to. In the case of someone who had murdered 100 people, this advice speaks volumes, and this pearl of wisdom is intended for all.
The Science of Habits : A Practical Method
It is now common knowledge in the field and study of habits that the best way to inculcate a certain habit is to surround oneself with those who practice that habit, and to continuously be in an environment where that habit is easy.
For example, if one desires to bring in habits that would define them as a good student, then one must be in an environment where that is easy to do, and where the cues to trigger habits of a good student are apparent everywhere, such as the books, pencils and all study material already being on a clean table, ready to be used. This particular example is very relevant as students worldwide struggled, and are still struggling greatly, due to the sudden shift to remote learning.
Now having indefinitely left the environment of school, on which many relied on to study, they are in their homes where the comfort of their bed is easily accessible, and constantly being attracted towards all the leisure pastimes in which they indulge in. Though many of those activities are not innately bad, they do hinder any effort made to study. Such a shift caused an observable ripple, due to which it is not uncommon to now hear stories of how students attend classes while still laying in bed, or don’t even attend at all. The environment pulls them away from their studies instead of pushing them to it.
Thus, it is important to note that consciously creating an environment, or joining an already made environment, which is conducive for a desired effect is a sign of intelligence and self awareness, because motivation and willpower are limited resources and will eventually run out. This reveals that even when there is no motivation, if the context and environment is such that the desired habit is easy, and doing otherwise is difficult, then one will be acting it out despite the lack of conscious desire to do so.
That reality is based on the fact that the mind will always incline to what is easier and avoid that which takes more time and effort, thus one can design an environment where the desired habit’s cues are apparent everywhere and where the habit is easy to perform. That is the secret to long lasting habits. Similarly, when trying to erase a bad habit, one can design the environment in a way that a bad habit is difficult to do, to the point that the mind will give up the desire to do it due to it’s difficulty and consumption of time and effort.
The Influence of Friends
This all speaks to the importance of a person’s environment. An important note to make is that when speaking about the environment, it implies everything that surrounds a person, from physical locations to the people around them also. The value and benefit of being surrounded by the right people cannot be stressed enough. It is truly priceless.
A concluding hadith to drive home the point mentions to the effect that good company is like sitting near a perfume seller; one will either directly benefit by buying the perfume, or at the very least retain some of the pleasant smells passing through the air. In the case of bad company, it is like sitting near a blacksmith, where the sparks can burn a person’s clothes, and the person will have to smell the repugnant odour.
The Necessary Due Diligence
To conclude, anyone who is desirous of changing themselves should understand that the secret to permanent change and improvement lies in one’s environment. It can either be a means for exactly that, a positive permanent change, or the opposite, as well as the cause for the biggest loss : a means to take one far from Allah The Almighty and Majestic. The principle of environmental influence is not only restricted to a person’s īmān, but also plays a pivotal role for any worldly success or loss as well. As such, one should be very diligent when choosing which environment they wish to be in, as well as very scrupulous in finding the correct friends.