Beware of envy (hasad) for it is the worse of companions! It was envy that wrecked the house of Iblis – it ruined him, it made him into one of the inhabitants of the Fire of Hell, and it caused him to be damned by the Rabb ul-Haqq (Lord of Truth), by His Angels, by His Prophets (AS) and by all creatures.
Any thinking person, any person with sense could not realistically indulge in feelings of envy once he or she has heard the words of Allah (SWT):
‘Is it they who would portion out the Mercy of your Lord? It is We Who portion out between them their livelihood in this world, and We raised some of them above others in ranks, so that some may employ others in their work. But the Mercy of your Lord is better than the wealth which they amass.’ [43: 32]
‘Or do they envy men for what Allah has given them of His Bounty? Then We had already given the family of Ibrahim the Book and the Wisdom, and conferred upon them a great kingdom.’ [4: 54]
Envy is dissatisfaction with Allah. An envious person is unhappy with Allah’s decision, is questioning His Fairness, His Wisdom, His Mercy, is questioning His Judgement! And to make matters worse, the bounties which fire this person’s envy belong to Allah, in fact they have always been His to do with as He pleases. We have not been created to question Allah. We have no grounds upon which we can query His actions. But for a surety He will question us; He will question all of our actions including the actions of the heart, actions of the heart just such as envy.
Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW) explained the effects of envy and its annihilating nature telling us, ‘Envy consumes the merit of good deeds just as fire consumes kindling wood.’ [Abu Dawud]
Some scholars have explained that once a person is filled with envy he or she may go so far as to murder his or her friend. This is horribly true, but I think we can go further and say that envy is even more depraved than this, for Allah has explained that envy can eat away so deeply at a person that they may murder their own brother, their own blood, they may murder their own flesh! I refer here to the story of Habil and Qabil, Cain and Abel, the two brothers born of our father Adam (AS) and mother Hawa.
Cain and Abel were each born with a twin sister. Cain, the eldest tilled the land growing crops whilst his younger brother reared cattle. As they matured, Allah from His Hikmah (Wisdom), from his Iradah (Desire) and from His Mashiyyah (Will) commanded Adam (AS) to marry each son to the twin sister of the other. Of course Adam instructed his children in complete submission to his Lord. But not so complete a submission for Cain: Cain was displeased at this decision, he was unhappy at being given Abel’s twin from Allah’s bounty, for she was not quite as beautiful as Cain’s own twin sister.
Hence from the beginning of mankind, we can see that physical beauty has been a driving force of attraction between men and women. It has been such a force as to inspire jealousy, envy, rage; enrapturing the heart, blinding clear sightedness, enslaving minds. Cain was so taken with his carnal desires he rebelled against his father. Compounding the matter, as his father was the envoy of Allah, Cain’s rebellion was against His Lord also. Look at this chain of authority… it resembles that of our own situation, that any of us disobeying the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is not only rebelling against him but is also rebelling against Him (SWT)!
At first glance Cain’s rebellion is hard to understand. He was the son of a Prophet, he was, chronologically, in close proximity to Allah – there weren’t great distortions in the religion or in creation to deceive him. He deceived himself. Cain displayed man’s dichotomous nature: though created pure, man’s potential is for both good and evil, obedience and rebellion, submission and rejection. Man has the potential for such self-interest and such impatience to acquire these interests that he can be oblivious to his own impending destruction! We have been taught that the path to goodness lies in the moderation of our desires and their consequent actions, in fighting our base instincts and in harnessing our lusts. It is through this divided nature with which Allah created us that we are tried and tested, Allah (SWT) warned,
‘Every soul is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and with good, and to Us you will be returned!’ [21: 35]
That is, it was no error or oversight on the part of Allah, He created precisely this duality, it is the hinge-factor of our existence – swinging us one way or the other, opening the door of success or opening the door of damnation. We are blessed in that we get to choose, yet it is a precarious path, there are consequences to every action, so we must be cautious about the reasons for our choices. We are not alone for we have been blessed further still with the guidance in the Book and the Sunnah.
Adam (AS) sought peace between his offspring and asked Allah’s help. Look at this man, this original man. He knew the names of all things, he had experienced Paradise, he was the father of all mankind, yet his first port of call was not to his own intellect, his own experiences and thoughts, it was to his Rabb, his Lord! Allah commanded that the brothers each offer a sacrifice and whoever’s was accepted would be shown to have ‘right’ on his side. Abel sought out and offered his best camel. Cain offered his poorest grain. Even after his disobedience to his father, even after his disobedience to Allah, His Lord still made a way for Cain to return to the straight path. But Cain refused. He was insincere, he was rebellious; envy made him dejected, consequently his offering rejected.
Envy ate away at Cain, thoughts and desires like sparks around the fuel of anger, at any moment igniting fires of rage. His heart blackened and poisonous no longer let in any light. Cain threatened to kill Abel if he followed the order to marry. But Abel was not afraid; instead he was concerned for his brother, empathetic, advising him always to return to Allah in humility. But this admonition fell on ears plugged with hatred, on a mind seized with self-delusion and a heart putrefied with hasad (envy). Cain took up a stone a smashed it into his brothers skull shattering the life from his body, and so crushingly committing the first criminal act of Man to be witnessed by the Earth, setting a precedent that mankind has failed to walk away from ever since.
This story requires no deep analysis, nor does it require any great elucidation from me. But it demands to be heard and it demands that we take note – its message is clear, its guidance is straight. Oh my people! Seek refuge in your Rabb from envy, seek refuge from allowing it to fester and grow in your own hearts and seek refuge from that which grows in the darkness of others. It is a foul thing. It is full of treachery. It will smile in your face and then rip your heart out as soon as your back is turned. Do not take it for granted! Allah ranked envy with the evil of Shaytan and with the evil of the witch and sorcerer’s magic as we find it in the mu’athitayn (Surah al-Falaq and Surah al-Nas). All these evils are invisible, they are hidden and we cannot fight what we cannot see, so we need Allah’s help. He (ta’ala) knows it and so that is why He has commanded we seek refuge in Him with these ayat – so I ask you, plead with you, seek refuge with Allah by obeying Him, by reciting these surahs after each prayer, thrice after Fajr and Maghrib and before sleeping, and seek Allah’s help and protection when you do so by sincerely meaning every single word that you utter.
Ya al-Musti’ath, ya al-Mustighath, ya al-Muhaymin! Protect us from hasad whether as protagonists or as victims, protect us from every evil eye, from every magic spell and from every evil trick of shaytan, Allahumma amin.
May the blessings of Allah be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, wa al-hamdu lillahi rabbil alamin.
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