The Impact of Environment

Imam Haatim al-Asam said:

‎لا تغتر بمكان صالح، فلا مكان أصلح من الجنة، ولقي فيها آدم ما لقي

‘𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱.’

[‘Madarij al-Salikin’, 1/510].

The environment does affect people, but the main deciding factor is the state of our inner-self. Beautiful roses and pure flowers grow out of dirt… thorns grow among flowers, flowers among thorns.

Moses grew up in the house of the Pharaoh. Asia, one of the best women in human history was the wife of the Pharaoh. Abraham grew up in the house of his father who was a polytheist. Noah’s son grew up in the house of Noah, but died a disbeliever. Lot’s wife was the wife of a Prophet, but died a disbeliever.

Many people think that moving to another country, or gender-segregation is the magic solution to all problems. Everything is important, but the main focus should be on the internal-self, not only on external factors.

The focus now seems to be only on what is ON someone’s head, not on what is IN someone’s head…

If someone is internally bad, they will find bad stuff, even if they were in Makkah and Madinah – or even ancient Baghdad! If someone is internally good, they will avoid bad stuff even in London and sin city Vegas.