16. ENVY IS HUMAN NATURE, RECTIFY IT
I found people exaggerate in dispraising the envier (basid), saying, ‘Envy (hasd) only comes from an evil person who objects to the grace (ni’ma) of Allah and is unsatisfied with His decree (qadd), and is stingy with his Muslim brother.”
I examined this and did not find it to be true. Man does not generally like others to be better than him. If a man saw his friend exceeding him, he is affected by this and is not genuinely pleased, wishing that his friend did not attain what he did—or that he himself attained what his friend did so as not to be excelled. This is rooted in his nature, and is not of real cause for blame.
Blame the consequences from acting on it, with words or deeds. I thought I had reached this conclusion with my own study and research, but I found that Al-Hasan Al-Basri had reached it before me.’Abdu’l-Khaliq Ibn ‘Abdu’l-Samad narrated from Ibn Al-Nuqud, from Al-Mukhlis, from Al-Baghawi, from Abu Ruh, from Mukhlid ibn Al-Husayn, from Hisham, that Al-Hasan said, ‘Every child of Adam is instilled with envy upon his creation, but whoever does not follow that with words or deeds, is not held accountable.’
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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