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Bad Results Of Envy - Shaykh Ashraf Salah
Bad Results Of Envy
Shaykh Ashraf Salah
Dear Muslims: Islam
pays great attention to the condition of hearts. Black hearts corrupt good
deeds and do away with their merits. As for pure hearts, Allah blesses their
deeds even if they are small and He grants them goodness. Allah described the
Muslims saying, which translates as: "And those who came after them say:
Our Lord! Forgive us, and our brethren who came before us into the Faith, and
leave not, in our hearts, rancor (or sense of injury) against those who have
believed. Our Lord! you are indeed Full of Kindness, Most Merciful"
(Al-Hashr: 10).
From
this standpoint comes the severe attack on one of the vices and illnesses of
the heart which is envy. Islam totally prohibits it. Allah ordered His
Messenger to seek refuge against the evils of the envious people. Envy is just
like a flaming fire in the envious person's heart. He himself, as well as other
people, are harmed because of it. An envious person wishes that the favors
bestowed upon other people would no longer exist and that such favors would
become his. Such a person is just like an epidemic, against whose ill
effects society should be warned.
The Envy is a nasty disease of
the heart that leads to bad conduct and behaviour, all of which are sins and
evils. Envy means that you hate a blessing that Allah (SWT) blessed someone
with and like for it to go away, and if you could make it go away, you would do
that. Envy leads to animosity, evil thinking about others' intentions,
backbiting, spreading rumours, lying, turning back on each other's, parting
with bad terms, it may also lead the envious person to inflict physical damage
with the envied person and even murder. It is a bad seed for a terrible tree of
diseases. For this reason, the scholars consider it from among the most
dangerous, destructive, inner diseases, and the most destructive for deen
(religion) and worldly life. The Islamic ruling of envy is haram (prohibited);
the degree of prohibition differs depending on the sins that result from it.
Dear Muslims: The Messenger of
Allah (PBUH) forbade us in the authentic hadeeth that is reported by
Imams Bukhari and Muslim, "Do not envy one another and do not hate one
another, and do not turn your back on one another (in discontent) and be the
servants of Allah like brother". The envier should reflect upon the
statement of the Messenger (PBUH): "Faith and envy cannot exist together
in the heart of the slave". [Ahmad]. The Prophet (PBUH) also warned against envy
and showed its effect on one's good deeds which go in vain, as he said: "Beware
of envy, because it devours good deeds just like a fire consumes
wood".
The prophet (PBUH) also said: "Do
not envy one another, do not defraud one another, do not despise one another,
do not turn your backs on one another and let none of you make an offer over
the offer of his brother. Be slaves of Allah and brothers. Every Muslim is a
brother to every Muslim. He does not oppress him, nor betray him, nor
deceive him, nor despise him. Taqwa is right here. (He pointed to his heart and
said that three times.) It is sufficient evil for a Muslim to look down
on his brother Muslim. Every Muslim is sacred to every other Muslim - his
blood, his property and his self-esteem." (Muslim). And
in another Hadith: "The diseases of the
nations who came before you will creep into your nation: envy and hatred.
By the One in whose Hand the soul of Muhammad is, you have not believed until
you love one another. Should I not tell you about something which, if you
do it, you will love one another? Spread the greeting (of peace) among
you.
Dear Muslims: Allah (S.W.T.) ordered his prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.)
and all the believers to seek refuge from the evil of the envious person and
envy, so He says in surat Al-Falaq, what can be translated as,
"Say: ‘I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of the day-break," and at
the end of the surah He then says, "And from the evil of the envier
when he envies."
Moreover, Allah (S.W.T.) scolded
envy and its bad results in the Qur'an in more than on place, among
which:
1- One who reads the story of
Prophet Yousuf (peace be upon him) and his brothers, realizes the danger of
envy upon the envious person, and how it blinds his sight and takes away mercy
from his heart, and drives him to inflict physical pain on the envied person.
Allah (S.W.T.) says in surat
2- The Qur'an told us
about the first son of Adam who killed his brother because of envy, and it was
the first bloodletting crime on the face of the earth. He envied him because
Allah accepted his brother's sacrifice but did not accept it from him. He
(S.W.T.) says in surat
Dear Muslims: If one does not hate the blessing Allah has given to
another one and does not like for it to go away but he likes for himself
something similar to it, then this is a possessive desire that leads to
competition; both of which are good and commendable.
Sometimes the word Envy is used
to tell of the strong possessive desire as mentioned in an authentic hadeeth,
reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim, "It is not worth it, to envy
anyone except in two cases. A man that Allah blessed with money and he spent it
righteously, and a man that Allah blessed with knowledge and he implemented it
in himself, and has taught it to others."
So, competition in the good
avenues is commendable. Allah (S.W.T.), after He mentioned to us the paradise
and its everlasting blessings, says in surat
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Imam
Al-Ghazali, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his book (Al-Ihya') after a
number of pages on envy and its dangers, "Be aware that envy is one of the
most dangerous diseases of the hearts, and there is no medicine for the
diseases of the heart except with knowledge and deeds.
As
to the knowledge that treats the disease of envy is to know without any doubt
that envy is dangerous for you in this worldly life and in your deen
(religion), and there is no danger from it on the envied person in this
life nor in his deen, on the contrary, the envied person will benefit
from it.
Envy
is dangerous for your deen because with envy, you hated Allah's
predestination and hated his blessings that He divided among his servants, and
you hated His justice that He established in His world for a wisdom, so you
contested that and objected it, and this is against the true oneness and
belief. In addition to that, you would have shared with Iblees (devil)
and the rest of the non-believers with their love for the crises to fall upon
the believers and for the blessings to go away from them. These are evils in
the heart that eat up the good deeds and erase them like the night erase the
day. And the fact that envy is dangerous upon your worldly life is that because
you suffer from your envy in this life and you are tortured by it, and you will
always be in sorrows every time you see the blessing of Allah (S.W.T.) on the
envied person."
And
as to the deeds that would treat envy, you should control yourself, so
everything that you did in the process of your envy for someone else like any
saying or action, you should now strive to do the opposite; if envy had driven
you to say something bad about your envied person, then strive to make your
tongue complement him, and if it had driven you to look down upon him, then act
with humility and apologize to him, and if it had driven you to stop doing good
things for the envied person, you should push yourself to do good things for
him.
Then,
Imam Al-Ghazali said: "These are the medicines for envy, and they are very
effective, but they are bitter on the hearts, but the effectiveness is in the
bitter medicine, so whosoever cannot be patient with the bitterness of medicine
cannot get the sweetness of the cure."
Dear Muslims: I would like to end my Khutbah by mentioning the story of Abdullah Bin Amru Bnil 'ass and the man that the prophet
(S.A.W.) said, "A man will come up to you from the people of
paradise." (He repeated this everyday for three days). The same man came
every time, and Abdullah slept at this man's house to find out about what he
does to deserve paradise.... Later, Abdullah almost belittled this man's deeds
because they are not too much, then he asked about what he does, so the man
said, "It is not except what you have seen, but I do not have for any
Muslim in my heart any deceit, or envy for good that Allah (S.W.T.) has blessed
him with. Abdullah, then, said: I said to this man: This is what got you to
paradise." (Ahmad).
May Allah (SWT) help us to do whatever pleases Him,
bless, guide and forgive us all. (Ameen).
