Part 7 (a): The Causes of Envy – Heart Therapy

Read the Table of Contents of Heart Therapy

Read Part 7: Hasad (Envy)

The causes of Hasad can be summarised as follows, sometimes, hasad is a result of more than one of these causes:

1. Enmity and Hatred: This is one of the severest causes of envy because when a person has hatred and enmity in his heart for someone animosity begins to settle in his heart. This animosity needs to be treated and causes the person to desire revenge. If he is unable to get some sort of revenge, this animosity turns into envy: the person yearns for his enemy to lose any blessings that he has. Every time his enemy his blessed, his anger increases and every time he is faced with misfortune, he gets happy and content.
2. Low Self-Esteem: This type of envy originates from one feeling that his significance is compromised when someone else attains something he likes and from his finding difficulty in anyone overtaking him. So whenever someone else is blessed with goodness the person feels inferior and this inferiority leads him to desire the blessing be removed from the other person.
3. Pride and Arrogance: This is when a person sees another succeeding beyond him and considers this person unworthy of this blessing. He is proud, thinks himself better and more deserving and wishes that the blessing be removed from his possession.

   This was the case of the disbelievers of Quraysh at the time of the Prophet. Allah says,

   “And they say,” Why was this Qur’an not sent down to a leading man in either of the two cities?” (43:31)

   They could not accept the fact that a young orphan man, the Prophet, was given revelation even though he was not a chief from one of the two major cities; Makkah and Ta’if. How could they possibly obey such a person?

4. Astonishment: This is when people are amazed and astonished that others are distinguished from them, and the question how someone like them can receive a blessing that they do not have.
5. Fearing of Losing of One’s Own Aims: This usually is the case when a number of people seek a common goal. In that situation each party is envious of another when the other party is blessed with something that helps to achieve the common goal. Such can be the case when siblings compete with one another for their parents’ love and attention, when co-wives compete with one another to win the heart of their husband or when the students of a teacher vie to get a higher status in the eyes of that teacher. If a rival gains something for the common purpose, the siblings, co-wives and fellow students get jealous as they see this as compromising their own goal.
6. Love of Leadership and Status: The person who is very talented in his field, who is accustomed to praise, compliments and flattery will find it difficult not to envy another who is up-and-coming in his field. As such, he will be saddened to hear of him being praised or esteemed and will wish this blessing removed from him. His love of recognition and fear of losing this is sufficient cause for envy.
7. Impurity in the Soul: An impure soul rejoices at the calamities of others and regrets their blessings. This person is miserly with regards to Allah’s provisions and blessings, and his attitude is one which implies that this bounty, on others, diminishes Allah’s provision for him; he forgets that Allah favours whom He wills, without measure and that others cannot limit that which is decreed for him already.

Read the next Part 7(b): Battling Hasad: Remedies and Cures