ভূমিকা
“A true believer exults, but never envies.”[^2] Short Expalantion Envy stems from blindness of the heart and rejection of Allah’s grace – the two wings of kufr and disbelief. An envious person’s evil afflicts him before it can afflict the envied; just like Iblees, whose evil overtook his own self and made him the eternally accursed one, whereas Adam went on to attain the rank of Prophethood.
The balance (of deeds) of a jealous person is light, thereby making Hell his abode, whereas the balance (of deeds) of the envied person is heavy, thereby leading him to Paradise. In view of this, Qabeel, who had murdered his brother Habeel because of this vice, hurled himself in Hell while sending his brother to Paradise.
If this vice penetrates into the soul of a person, he would never be able to repent (for his misdeeds) but instead, would always be on the lookout to cause harm and injury to those, who are either superior to him or possess more than him.[^3] The Friend of ‘Isa Imam Sadiq (as) said: “Stay away from jealousy and do not harbour envy with respect to one another.” Having said this, the Imam (as) continued: “One of the practices which Prophet ‘Isa (as) adopted for himself, was to travel from city to city.
During one of these journeys, he took along with him a companion who was of short build and who also happened to be one of his attendants. After a while, they reached the sea. ‘Isa (as) recited the name of Allah, stepped onto the water and began walking over it effortlessly. Repeating what ‘Isa (as) has performed, the companion recited what the prophet had and began to follow him over the water.
In the middle of the sea he thought to himself, “‘Isa is a prophet and walks over water and I am walking over water too, so what superiority does he possess over me?” These thoughts hardly crossed his mind when he suddenly fell into the water and began to plead to ‘Isa (as) for help. ‘Isa (as) took hold of his hand and pulled him out of the water. “What did you say that caused you to fall into the water?” he asked. The companion confessed to the thoughts that had passed through his mind.