Whathasadis,thewordsaroundit—andwhereenvybegan

The definition

Hasad is wishing that a blessing would leave its owner — whatever that blessing may be. It is a despicable trait, because it is among the traits of Iblis, among the traits of the Jews, and among the traits of the worst of creation, ancient and modern; and because it is a refusal to be content with what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has apportioned.

Ibn Taymiyyah goes deeper in his book Diseases of the Hearts (Amrad al-Qulub): on close examination, hasad is really hatred and resentment at seeing the good condition of the envied person. It is of two types.

• The first type: resenting the blessing itself — disliking, absolutely, that this person has been blessed. This is the blameworthy hasad. And because he hates it, he suffers and aches whenever the thing he hates exists; it becomes a sickness in his heart. He takes pleasure in the blessing's removal even though its removal brings him no gain — except relief from his own pain. But that relief is diseased at the root, for the blessing may return to the envied person, and greater than before.
• The second type: resenting being surpassed. He does not hate the person's blessing itself, but hates that the person is above him — so he wants to be equal or better. This is also called ghibṭah; and the Prophet ﷺ still called it "hasad" in the agreed-upon hadith:

The word itself

In language, hasad means the envier wishing the removal of the envied person's blessing; the technical meaning does not depart from this. Al-Shafi'i said of its origin in a person: "Hasad comes only from baseness of element, contrary dispositions, faulty constitution and a weak knot of intellect. The envier lives in long regret and is denied the ranks."

Five words that live next to hasad

Tamannī — wishing

From a root meaning to measure or estimate, since the wisher pictures the thing happening. Technically: seeking that a thing come about, whether possible or impossible. Hasad is one species of wishing, as al-Zarkashi notes in al-Manthūr.

Ḥiqd — the grudge

Harboured enmity and hatred. Technically: the desire for revenge that forms when anger must be swallowed — unable to discharge itself at the time, it turns inward, sits in the chest, and congeals into a grudge, with ill-thinking of people. The grudge is the fruit of anger — and hasad is the fruit of the grudge. As the Ihya' explains, the grudge carries its owner into wishing his enemy's blessing away: grieving at every good that reaches him, delighting at every misfortune that befalls him. Anger, grudge, envy: a chain.

Shamātah — gloating

Rejoicing at the misfortunes that strike another. Gloating and hasad go together, for the envious rejoices at others' calamities.

'Ayn — the evil eye

The affliction whose caster is called an 'ā'in. The envier and the caster share this: each one's soul takes on a harming disposition and directs itself at the one it wants to hurt. But the caster's soul is triggered by encounter and seeing, while the envier's works in the target's absence as well as his presence. And the caster may even strike what he does not envy — an animal, a crop — though he rarely escapes envy of its owner. Ibn al-Qayyim says: "Hasad is the root of the affliction of the eye. A man may strike himself with his own eye; and he may cast the eye without intending to — by his very nature — and this is the worst kind of human being."

Ghibṭah — emulation

Called hasad only figuratively. In language it denotes good condition; to feel ghibṭah towards someone is to wish for the like of what he has, without wanting it to leave him — because it impressed you and seemed great to you. Striving for this is called competition (munāfasah): praiseworthy in obedience, blameworthy in sin, permitted in neutral things. Ibn Taymiyyah confirms the boundary in Amrad al-Qulub (1/14): some defined hasad as wishing the blessing's removal even if the envier gains nothing — as against ghibṭah, wishing for its like without loving its loss; and the verified position is that hasad is the hatred and resentment of the envied person's good condition.

Where envy began

Envy's origin and first appearance was Iblis's envy of Adam, peace be upon him. He said:

He envied Adam and his descendants, and set his hosts to plot against them, whispering grudge and envy into people's breasts. He began with the two sons of Adam — and the first killing in history happened because of hasad.

That is the measure of this disease: older than mankind's first grave, and the cause of digging it. The pages that follow trace its causes, its ruling, its degrees, and — most importantly — its cure.