What is envy?

What is envy?

Envy is a heart disease that affects people of all walks of life; spouses who envy their neighbors’ wealth, brothers and sisters who envy their relatives’ well-being, etc.

Often a person may not realize or understand that he is envious but this feeling is hidden in his heart at that time. Envy can manifest itself in many different ways and in people of different statuses; it is different for everyone, but it has the same destructive power.

Envy is the desire to deprive a person of blessings, which the Almighty has bestowed with His mercy or for them to pass to him (the envious person). This vice manifests itself when someone surpasses you in something, be it in property, knowledge, trade, etc.

Abu Layth al-Samarqandi says, “Three supplications are not accepted: from one who eats forbidden food, from one who gossips a lot and from one who has malice, hatred towards believers or envy towards them in his heart.” Envy can destroy families when a husband or wife is envious of the success of other people, when it begins to manifest itself in mutual reproaches and dissatisfaction with what the Almighty has given. It is impossible to satisfy the envious person, because he will not calm down until the one he envies is deprived of these benefits. However, another object will appear here, whom he will again begin to envy, since we live in a society where people differ in beauty, wealth, success, etc.

Are there those who can be envied?

Ibn Masud reports that the Messenger of God said, “There should be no envy of anyone except two: a person whom God ﷻ has endowed with wealth and helped him spend it on what is true and a person whom God ﷻ has given wisdom, and judges and teaches according to it.” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari, Muslim).

Based on this, we should understand that envy can also be good (white). What is white envy? One in which a person does not want anyone to lose what they have, but on the contrary, wants even more benefits for them but wants the same for themselves. For example, he wants to have property so that he can also spend it for the benefit of people. The same can be explained by the example of the desire for knowledge of religion and the Koran, so that he can also teach others, thus giving benefit.

It is necessary to remember that hatred, malice towards believers, deception and envy eat away at our good deeds, pollute a person’s heart, deprive him of peace both in this world and in the eternal world.

In the hadith of the Messenger of God it is said, “Beware of envy, for it devours good deeds just as fire devours wood.” (Narrated by Abu Dawud). In addition to the loss of good deeds, envy becomes a heavy spiritual burden for the envious person, which deprives him of peace and joy and satisfaction with his own blessings and favors. Such a person loses good faith in himself and the ability to be sincere.

We should be careful at the moment this defect of the heart arises. It often happens that a wife or children, coming home, talk about what they saw of others. At this moment, the husband, as the head of the family, should beautifully instruct that this quality ruins our good deeds, deprives us of the Creator’s pleasure and reduces the grace in the family. It is necessary to pay attention to the spiritual education of all family members, to keep our hearts free of bad opinions and envy of others, especially neighbors whom we see every day and know their material well-being. Only by helping each other grow spiritually, will the family find harmony, love and peace.

We must realise that the destiny of each person is already predetermined by the Creator and we will receive only what is prescribed for us. However, this does not mean that we should not try and make possible efforts.

We ask the Almighty to cleanse our hearts from envy and other vices, to give us strength to overcome bad thoughts and qualities, to grant benefits (knowledge and wealth) that will be a benefit for us and the people around us. Amin!

Source: “Tanbih ul-Gafilin”