Clarification of the effect of living in an environment and that a person is influenced by his surroundings, mentioning the evidence for this from the noble Sunnah and that it is part of our Shari'ah.

The Shaykh : It is perhaps useful to remind you of a hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his *Sahih*, and perhaps by al-Bukhari as well in his *Sahih*. It is a wonderful hadith in establishing what some of the young Muslim students of modern, abstract psychology, who study it apart from the guidance of the Qur'an and the Prophetic hadith, might think. They believe that what they read in this psychology is a discovery of the Europeans, such as their saying: "The environment has an effect, whether it is material or spiritual":
This is taken from our Shari'ah, so listen to the hadith of your Prophet, which established the effect of the environment and legislated for us to live in a good environment and not in a bad one, so that we are not influenced by the morals of its people. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: : His luck was bad. He asked about the most knowledgeable person on earth and was directed to an ignorant man, but one who was devoted to worship. This is one of the misfortunes of people in every age and era; they think that the man devoted to worship worships with knowledge, as if they imagine that knowledge and righteousness are a necessary, inseparable combination. Unfortunately, that is not the case. How many are there who are devoted to worship but ignorant, and how many are there who are scholars but open sinners? Knowledge and righteousness rarely come together. Therefore, this wicked man who had killed ninety-nine souls without right was sane when he asked to be directed to the most knowledgeable person on earth, but they directed him poorly and sent him to a monk.
: His departure is evidence that he was serious in his repentance to his Lord, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) willed that He should take his soul while he was on his way to the village with the righteous people.
: Each of the two groups claimed that it was their right to take charge of taking his soul. The angels of punishment knew from him that he had killed a hundred souls without right, so who is more deserving to take his soul than the angels of punishment?!
The angels of mercy looked at the outcome and the ending, and as came in another hadith on a different occasion: So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sent an angel to judge between them, and he said to them, as if saying the matter is easy: : A person does not walk like this, but with some leaning forward, so the angels of mercy took charge of him. The point is: : For it is an evil village from which he learned to shed blood, and he moved to the village whose people are righteous. Therefore:
"Do not ask about a man, but ask about his companion *** For every companion follows the one he keeps company with".