Ataul Fatir Tahir, Al Hakam
Modern society often traps us in an environment that fosters self-destructive behaviours and harmful habits, leaving people struggling to break free.
For Muslims, Islamic teachings offer effective frameworks to escape these vicious cycles of bad habits and sin – one such method being the concept of repentance: Tauba and Istighfar.
Interestingly, insights from modern scientific studies demonstrate how the Islamic framework of repentance aligns deeply with human neurobiology, as I will explore in this piece.
Post-sin actions prescribed by Islam
When Muslims sin, they are instructed by Allah the Almighty and His Messengersa to immediately take specific actions, which include the following:
- Seek forgiveness from Allah
- Do good deeds, such as giving charity or worship
For example, Allah says:
وَالَّذِیۡنَ اِذَا فَعَلُوۡا فَاحِشَۃً اَوۡ ظَلَمُوۡۤا اَنۡفُسَہُمۡ ذَکَرُوا اللّٰہَ فَاسۡتَغۡفَرُوۡا لِذُنُوۡبِہِمۡ وَمَنۡ یَّغۡفِرُ الذُّنُوۡبَ اِلَّا اللّٰہُ ۪۟ وَلَمۡ یُصِرُّوۡا عَلٰی مَا فَعَلُوۡا وَہُمۡ یَعۡلَمُوۡنَ
“And those who, when they commit a foul deed or wrong themselves, remember Allah and implore forgiveness for their sins – and who can forgive sins except Allah? – and do not persist knowingly in what they have done.” (Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, Ch.3: V.136)
The Holy Prophetsa advised Muslims, saying:
أَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحسنةَ تَمْحُهَا
“Follow up a bad deed with a good deed, and it will erase it.” (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)
In the same vein, the Quran emphasises the efficiency of good deeds in overcoming the bad ones:
إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ ذَلِكَ ذِكْرَى لِلذَّاكِرِينَ
“Surely, good works drive away evil works”. (Surah Hud, Ch. 11: V.115)
Allah also describes believers as those who “repel evil with good” (وَيَدْرَءُونَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ السَّيِّئَةَ). (Surah ar-Ra’d, Ch.13: V.23)
The key here is immediacy – following the sin with immediate repentance and good works.
Many more examples from the Quran and hadith encourage Muslims to do good works to expiate sins and to follow every bad action with a good one.
Not only does this principle restore spiritual balance within us, but it also – practically – helps us to avoid sin over time, as neuroscience can explain.
Post-bad-habit ‘positive cargo’: Dr Andrew Huberman
In his highly claimed podcast covering “The Science of Making and Breaking Habits”, Dr Andrew Huberman – a Stanford professor and renowned neuroscientist – explains that one of the most effective ways to break a bad habit is to immediately follow the negative behaviour with positive and constructive action.
For example, if you find yourself reaching for your phone while trying to work, instead of just putting it down and returning to your task, you should do something positive right away – such as press-ups or star jumps.
Dr Huberman says: “When you realise you did [the bad habit], you need to engage in positive behaviour immediately afterward.”
The effectiveness lies in how quickly this action is taken and the nature of the action.
Here’s how.
Weakening neural pathways in the brain
Dr Huberman explains breaking bad habits involves changing the neural circuits in your brain that drive those habits.
When you repeatedly perform a bad habit, specific neurons (brain cells) fire together in a sequence, forming a strong connection that reinforces the behaviour. This process is known as long-term potentiation (LTP) and often happens reflexively, without conscious awareness, making it difficult to interrupt.
For instance, each time you pick up your phone reflexively or bite your nails, the neural pathway responsible for those actions gets stronger.
Dr Huberman explains that the immediate shift from a negative action to a positive one weakens the neural pathway associated with the bad habit – you essentially “rewrite” the sequence of neurons firing.
This is known as long-term depression (LTD). By disrupting the firing sequence, you prevent the bad habit from being reinforced, gradually weakening the neural pathway.
This process effectively makes it easier to break the habit and replace it with healthier behaviour as, over time, the intensity of the bad habit reduces.
Creating a ‘double habit’
Dr Huberman also says that by adding a positive behaviour after the bad habit, you create a “double habit”:
“You start to create a kind of a double habit that starts with a bad and then ends with a good habit. And that seems to create enough of a temporal mismatch so that then recognising when you’re heading toward the bad habit becomes more apparent to you.”
This mismatch in timing – where you start with a bad habit but end with a positive one – makes you more aware of the moment before you engage in the bad habit. Over time, this awareness helps you identify the signs earlier, making it easier to replace the bad habit before it takes hold.
The nature of the positive action
As emphasised earlier, the key to this method is timing – but the nature of the positive replacement behaviour is also important. Interestingly, the science aligns with Islamic teachings on repentance.
The post-bad-habit positive behaviour should be something fairly easy to execute as Dr Huberman says:
“The nature of that positive thing is important. You don’t want it to be very hard to execute, you want it to be something that’s positive and fairly easy to execute.”
As noted above, Islam already incorporates this practice into its teachings. When Muslims sin, they are encouraged to seek immediate repentance through Tauba (repentance) and Istighfar (seeking forgiveness) and follow a sin with positive action. These positive actions are fairly easy to execute in Islam: Giving charity, helping someone, visiting the sick, volunteering, the list goes on.
Allah and His Messengersa have guided us to repent immediately after sinning and follow with good deeds. Repentance not only brings us back to Allah (and away from Satan) but also protects us from falling into the same sin again.
Such is the mercy and wisdom of Allah. As Muslims, we often take Islamic practices for granted, only to realise later that what Islam has given us is making our lives easier and healthier, whether we realise it or not.
It’s the perfect blueprint for human living, drawn by our Creator – a framework we often take for granted as Muslims.