Kindsanddegreesofenvy—thefour-rungladder

Two kinds

Al-Nawawi, in his commentary on Sahih Muslim, divides hasad into two kinds:

• Real hasad: wishing that the blessing be removed from its owner.
• Figurative hasad (ghibṭah): wishing for the like of another's blessing, without its removal from him.

Four degrees — where are you on the ladder?

Within those two kinds, the scholars grade envy into four degrees, from worst to best. Read them as a mirror.

1. Wanting the blessing gone — even though it would never come to you. The envier loves the removal of the blessing from the envied although he gains nothing by it. This is the utmost malice: pure destruction, with no profit even to the destroyer.
2. Wanting the blessing transferred to you. He wants the blessing gone from its owner because he wants it for himself — the beautiful house, the lovely wife, the position of authority, the prosperity another attained. His real object is the blessing, not its loss; what he hates is going without it, not that another enjoys it.
3. Wanting the like — and, failing that, wanting it gone. He does not desire the very blessing itself, but its like; and when he cannot reach the like of it, he wants the other's gone so the gap between them will not show. This degree is mixed — part of it blameworthy and part not.
4. Ghibṭah — wanting the like, and nothing more. He wishes for the like of the blessing for himself; and if he cannot have it, he does not wish its loss on its owner.

The verdicts: the fourth degree is excused in worldly matters and actually encouraged in religious ones; the third is mixed; the second is lighter than the third; and the first is purely blameworthy.

A note on the fourth degree

Even calling the last rung "hasad" is a loose extension of the word. Yet one caution attaches even here, from the verse:

The prohibition is on coveting the very thing Allah gave to another — his blessing itself, singled out. Wishing for the like of it is not blameworthy. That fine line — "give me what he has" versus "give me such as he has" — is the whole difference between a heart at war with the decree and a heart making du'ā within it.