Theharmsofenvy—eightwaysitdestroys,startingwiththeenvier

Eight harms

The source gathers the damage hasad does into eight points — and notice how many of them land on the envier himself before they touch anyone else.

1. It is a despicable trait that harms the body and corrupts the religion. Envy is not a private feeling that stays in its box: it eats at the envier's health and at his faith together.
2. It has no limit. The envier's envy knows no boundary — it reaches the near and the far alike.
3. It spares no one — not even the envier himself. He leaves no one un-envied, and even his own self is not safe from him. As the saying goes: "A man's conceit in himself is one of the enviers of his own intellect" — self-admiration robs a man of his judgement exactly as an envier would rob him of a blessing.
4. It melts the soul and strips away its virtues. A heart occupied with resenting others' blessings has no room left for its own excellence.
5. The envier sets himself against Allah — against His blessings, and against His wisdom in dividing them.
6. It breeds hatred — and hatred leads to conflict and killing. The road from a grudging heart to a raised hand is shorter than people think; the first murder in history travelled it.
7. It invites misery. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, was asked about hasad and wretchedness — which is worse? He answered: "Hasad is the summoner of wretchedness. Iblis envied Adam, and his envy became the cause of his misery — he became accursed after he had been honoured."
8. It corrupts acts of worship and generates sins and evils. Envy does not sit still: it spoils the obedience a person has, and drives him into wrongs he would not otherwise commit — backbiting, scheming, slander and worse.

Set the eight side by side and one fact stands out: the envied person barely appears in the list. His blessing does not move; the decree does not bend. It is the envier whose body, faith, soul, deeds and standing with Allah are being consumed. That is why the cure for envy — covered in its own article — is aimed at the envier's heart: he is the disease's first and truest victim.