assignment on envy beta 3.0

     This article is taken from Harian Metro online at www.hmetro.com.my dated Sunday 29^th July 2012 titled Hasad Dengki Menghilangkan Kebaikan (Envy Can Destroy Good Deeds) written by anonymous. Envy in a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to other’s advantages, success and possessions. Envy is also known as invidiousness and best defined as a resentful emotion that occurs when a person lacks another’s superior achievement or possession and wishes that the other lacked it. Some scholars thought envy as a pain caused by the good fortune of others. Envy can destroy one’s good deeds.

     The author relates the title of the article with the hadith reported by Ibnu Majah: “envy destroy good deeds as fire burning the wooden sticks”. Besides, the writer mention in this article that envy is a disease of heart which when a person does not happy to see other’s enjoyment or glory but hope the dignity or ease lost from the one they envy. Moreover, author also mentions that envy is cause by love of worldly life and forgets the greatness of Allah. This disease does not even care the boundary of relationship whether family, friends or anyone. Islam itself clearly forbids Muslims from any feeling of envy because it is destructive to the doer. Usually envious person would not live in happiness meanwhile; they will always restless especially when the envied person gains more and more happiness. However there is different with someone who is jealous is work hard to strive what he would like to achieve. The author does highlight the way to overcome and cure envy. First we should monitor ourselves and realize that envy is a disease that may damage us. Second, we must be thankful with the blessing granted by Allah and acknowledge that Allah knows the best for His creatures. Third, when we see someone get pleasure or advantage, we admit that they had done best and they get what they deserve. Next, do not compare ourselves with those higher states because Allah does not like his servants who do not express gratitude with blessing that are given by Him. Seek refuge from Allah from invidiousness and always pray to Allah because Allah love who always pray toward him. Do acknowledge that sometimes Allah will give something good in the ways that we never imagine. So we should never envy or slander other people because it is stated that Allah would never give nor reduce something in His creature because he knows every inch in his creation. This statement based on the statement translated as “if Allah were to enlarge sustenance for his servants, they will rebel on the earth, but Allah give what he wills with measurements. Indeed he knows the state of his servants and sees everything.” (As-Syura: 26)

     This article helps the readers to understand how to manage envy in daily lives. however this article does not describe a lot about emulation (ghitbah). “There is to be no worth in envy except in two cases that are toward a person whom Allah has granted wisdom and who rule by this and teaches it to people and towards a person, and to whom Allah has grant wealth and property along with power to spend it in the cause of Truth”. In this condition he wishes for himself a blessing likes that which someone else has, without wanting it to be taken away from the other person. This is permissible and not calls envy but should call accurately as qhitbah. On the other hand, envy and jealousy are often use interchangeably but actually they stand for different meaning in emotions. Jealousy is a feeling of uneasiness of lost possession or controls of something for the owner or lover for example the transfer of lover’s affections in a typical form. Meanwhile envy may be translated as the resentment caused by another person having something that one does not have and desire for oneself.

     Envy is a nasty heart disease that may lead one to negative conduct and bad behavior. This bad feeling may lead to animosity, backbiting, negative thinking about other’s intentions, spreading bad rumors, lying, turning back on each other’s and the bad news is it may also inflict damage on other’s physical and may lead to murder and it is something that Allah forbid. For this reasons, scholars consider envy as one among the most destructive, dangerous inner disease and most destructive for Din and worldly life. It is best to describe envy as when you hate blessing that Allah blesses someone with and like for it to go away, and if you may make it go away you would do that. That is envy.

     However, there is a medicine for envy. Imam Al-Ghazali said in his book, Ihya’ al-Ulum al-Din : “be aware that envy is one of the most dangerous diseases of the hearts and there is no medicine for the disease of the heart except with knowledge and deeds. As for the knowledge that recover the envy is to know without any doubt that envy is dangerous for oneself and others in this worldly life and for Din and there is no danger from it on the envied person that the envy person will benefits from it. The fact that envy is dangerous upon envy person worldly life is because he will suffer from his envy in his life and torture by it. He will be in sorrow every time he see the blessing of Allah on someone else and never see what had Allah gave him in his daily life.  And as to the deeds that would treat envy, he should control himself, so everything that he envy on someone else like saying or his action, he know how to strive it for the positive way and may lead to positive outcomes. When envy stops him from doing good deeds, he should force himself to do good things for himself and his good. These are the good medicine for envy and they are very effective, but they are bitter on the hearts, but the effectiveness are in the bitter medicine, so who ever cannot be patient with the bitterness of medicine cannot get the sweetness of the cure.