Envy (hasad)

In Ibn Rajab's commentary, envy (hasad) is the wish for another's blessing to be removed, or dislike of his excellence. It is the first of the four prohibitions in the thirty-fifth hadith of the Forty: "Do not envy one another, do not inflate prices against one another, do not hate one another, and do not turn away from one another." ¹

Ibn Rajab holds that these prohibitions regulate the side of the heart in the brotherhood of Islam, and that they precede the prohibitions concerning dealings. ¹

Envy is linked to najash, which is raising the price of a commodity without intending to buy it, in order to deceive, and to hatred and turning away from one another. All of these are diseases of the heart that produce the severing of brotherhood. ¹

The hadith pairs them with belittling a fellow Muslim, and it counts that as enough evil for its possessor. ¹

Envy belongs to the chapter on character in the museum's classification.

The Sheikh gives examples of the wish and the comparison that trouble the heart over blessings: a person says he has a righteous child while another has none, or a healthy child while another's child is ill (needs_source: the classification of these examples as envy is not clear in the transcript). ²

The Sheikh says that patience with those around you, including relatives who envy you, is patience that is needed (his view). ³ He holds that envy is broken by doing good to the one who envies you and increasing kindness to him (his view). ⁴ He mentions seeking refuge from the whisperings of Satan, and repelling evil with what is better (needs_source). ^{5 6}

The Sheikh contrasts the emotions of this world with those of the afterlife. He says a man may see his cousin driving an expensive car and, if he is content, accept his own lot and thank God for his health, while in someone else's heart sensitivity and envy may stir, and he counts all this among the emotions of this world ^{7 8}.

The Sheikh jokes that if he became a manager his first decision would be to jail the employee who informs on colleagues to the boss, and then adds that the universe is not in a person's hands ⁹. In the same jest he imagines the air tanks placed in his hands so that he rations air among his family and relatives, with the mother-in-law mentioned at the end of the scene, and then stresses that sustenance comes from God's bounty alone ^{10 11}.

The Sheikh holds, as his own opinion, that many people spend their lives seeking money and rank, and in resentment and envy of others, instead of asking what they have given to God's cause ¹². He says that the story of Qarun repeats throughout history, since people today look at the world's billionaires and wish for what they have been given ¹³.