Reading even small passages shapes the way we think and behave.
This reality of life was demonstrated by John Bargh in a series of studies. Let me share two of those experiments as reported by David McRaney in his book “You Are Not So Smart.”
“The question of who is truly in the driver’s seat was made far more complex in 1996 by a series of studies published by John Bargh in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He had New York University students unscramble thirty separate five-word sentences. He told them he was interested in their language abilities, but he was really studying priming. He assembled three groups. One unscrambled sentences with terms associated with aggression and rudeness such as “brazen,” “disturb,” and “bluntly.” Another group unscrambled words from a bank of polite terms like “courteous” and “behaved.” A third group served as a control with words like “gleefully,” “prepares,” and “exercising.”
The experimenters told the students how to complete the task and once they were done to come find them to receive the second assignment, but this was the real experiment.
“When each student approached the researcher he or she found him already engaged in a conversation with an actor who was pretending to be having trouble understanding the word puzzles. The researcher completely ignored the student until he or she interrupted the conversation or ten minutes passed.”
“The results? The polite-word group waited on average 9.3 minutes to interrupt; the neutral group waited about 8.7 minutes; and the rude-word group waited around 5.4 minutes. To the researchers’ surprise, more than 80 percent of the polite-word group waited the full 10 minutes. Only 35 percent of the rude-word group chose not to intrude. The subjects were interviewed after the experiment and couldn’t pinpoint why they chose to wait or to interrupt. The question never entered their minds because as far as they knew, their behavior had not been influenced. The scrambled sentences, they believed, had not affected them.
“In a second experiment, Bargh had participants unscramble sentences that contained words associated with old age, like “retired,” “wrinkled,” and “bingo.” He then clocked participants’ speed as they walked down a hall to an elevator and compared it to the speed they walked when they first strolled in. They took about one to two extra seconds to reach their destination. Just as with the rude-word groups, the old-word groups were primed by the ideas and associations the words created.”
What this means is that the material we consume can readily and instantly moderate not only our thinking, but also our behaviour.
Accordingly, to remind us to be upright citizens, we are asked to consume wholesome books. It’s the same reason why Islamic scholars encourage us to rehearse the verses of the Qur’an often. For the purposes of this article therefore, I’m going to show how a contemplative reading of the Qur’an can shape not only our behaviour but also our personality and character.
So, using the Qur’an as example, there are verses and chapters for all occasions. Fatiha teaches us how to present our request or ask for help from a higher authority. The key is to acknowledge them. The entire chapter’s purpose is to ask for only one favour from God. But only one verse makes the request: “Show us the straight path.”
All the preceding verses are an acknowledgement of God. They celebrate the praises of God. Then the last verse mentions the kind of favour we want. The lesson here is that whenever we want to ask someone for help, we shouldn’t rush into the request. We should first appreciate the good thing that they have already done. This encourages them to do more.
Chapter Kahf, through the story of al-Khidhr (AS) and Musa (AS), teaches us to be both curious students and wise scholars. That story also nudges us to be humble in knowledge and self-estimation because another chapter (Yusuf) leaves us in no doubt that “over every possessor of knowledge, there is one more knowing (76).”
We learned the most powerful definition of leadership from the same Kahf through Dhul-Qarnayn.
And if you’re depressed, you can instantly improve your situation by a reading of Ad-Dhuhaa.
Finally, to prove its own divinity, the Qur’an tells us to ponder over the entire book because if it were from “other than Allah,” we would have found a lot of contradictions.
About its diversity it says: “And We have certainly diversified in this Qur’an for the people from every [kind of] example; but man has ever been, most of anything, [prone to] dispute.”
Actionable Tip
Do you want to start behaving like a leader? Go to Kahf (chapter 18) and start reading from verse 83.
