Salam, Ten reasons to repel envy from yourself- Extracted from the work of Ibn Qayyem Al-Jawziyyah Alhamdulillaah, waS-Salaatu was-salaamu ‘alaa rasoolil-llaah, There is no doubt that envy is a blameworthy act which many people has been harmed by, and it is said that: no body is free from envy, however the believer suppresses his envy and the hypocrite shows it. And if one is usually unable to control the feeling of others towards him if they envy him, there are reasons which he can take to repel the envy from himself which Imaam Ibn Qayyem Al-Jawziyyah rahimahul-llaah mentioned. And they are the following: The first reason: Take refuge in Allaah from his evil and take shelter in Him, and Allaah is All-Hearing to whom takes refuge in Him. The hearing here means the answering not the general hearing, it is like saying: Allaah heard whom praised him, and the saying of Al-Khaleel: {Verily! My Lord is indeed All-Hearer of invocation} Ibraheem 39 [Ibn Katheer said: i.e. He answers whoever invokes upon Him]. And ponder how seeking refuge from the evil of mankind occurred in the noble Qur’aan with (All-Seer), that is because their actions can be seen {Verily, those who dispute about Ayaat of Allaah, without any authority having come to them, there is nothing else in their breasts except pride. They will never have it [i.e. prophet-hood]. So seek refuge in Allaah, verily, it is He who is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer} Ghaafir 56. In contrast, seeking refuge from the devil occurs with All-Knower because the devil casts whispers and thoughts into the heart and this is relevant to knowledge {And if an evil whisper from Satan tries to turn you away then seek refuge in Allaah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower} Fussilat 36. The second reason: Fearing Allaah, and observing His command and His prohibition. For that, whoever fears Allaah, He will take charge of protecting him and He will not leave him to other than Him. Allaah the exalted said: {But if you remain patient and become the pious, not the least harm will their cunning do to you} Aal Imraan 120. And the Prophet peace is upon him said to Abdul-llaah bin Al-Abbaas-Allaah is pleased with him: “Be Mindful of Allaah and Allaah will protect you. Be Mindful of Allaah and you will find Him in front of you” Collected by At-Tirmithee. So whoever is mindful of Allaah, Allaah will be mindful of him and he will find Him in front of him. And what will whoever Allaah is mindful of him and in front of him fear? The third reason: To be patient with his enemy, and not to confront him or complain about him, and not to scruple to himself about his harm, for that he will not be made victorious over his envious and enemy with something like being patient with him and having reliance upon Allaah. He should not say to himself that the oppression from his enemy is far too long, verily, the more that his enemy oppresses him the more that his oppression is soldiers and might on the side of the oppressed one. The oppression of the oppressor is arrows which he throws against himself! And had the oppressed one saw it this way he would be pleased with the oppression of the oppressor, but due to his weak insight he only sees the oppression without seeing its outcome. Allaah the exalted said: {That is so. And whoever has retaliated with the like of that which he has made to suffer, and then has again been wronged, Allaah will surely help him} Al-Hajj 60. So if Allaah has guaranteed vicotory for him although he has taken his right, so how about the person who did not take anything from his right? Rather he is oppressed and he is patient? No sin deserves quick punishment more than oppression and cutting ones’ family ties. And it is the tradition of Allaah that if a mountain oppresses a mountain, He will make the oppressor of them ground to powder. The fourth reason: Having reliance upon Allaah, {whoever puts his trust in Allaah, then He will suffice him} At-Talaaq 3. And reliance upon Allaah is from the greatest reasons by which the servant repels the harm and oppression of creatures which he has no ability to withstand. Verily, Allaah will suffice him, and whoever is sufficed and protected by Allaah, his enemy will have no access him, and he will not be harmed except with an inescapable harm such as coldness or heat or starvation. Some of the Salaf said: Allaah specified a reward for every act that is from its kind, and He made the reward of relying upon Him sufficing the servant by Himself. So He said: {whoever puts his trust in Allaah, then He will suffice him} and he did not say: He will grant him such and such like He said regarding acts. Rather He made Himself sufficient for his servant whom relies upon Him, so if the servant relies upon Allaah the true reliance and everyone in heaven and earth plotted against him, He will suffice him and grant him a way out. The fifth reason: He should void his heart from being preoccupied with his enemy and thinking about him. He should remove him from his mind every time he remembers him, so he should not pay attention to him and he should not fear him, and this is from the most beneficial cures and strongest reasons to repel his evil. It is like the person whom his enemy is looking for him to harm him, so if he [the envied] did not come to his way and he kept away from him, he will not find him, but if they grab one another the evil will occur. So one should keep his mind free from his enemy and if he remembers him he should get rid of this reminder by busying himself with that which will be more beneficial to him, and the envious will eat himself within, for that envy is like fire, if it did not find something to burn, it burns itself. This is not realized except by those who possess honorable souls and lofty élans, if the smart person wants to benefit from this [cure], he only needs to see the heart that is preoccupied with his enemy is being tormented severely. And this can only been seen by the tranquil souls that are content with Allaah being the one to rely upon, and that realized Him bringing victory to them is better than them bringing victory for themselves. And that realized His aiding of them is stronger and more lasting and more beneficial than their aiding of themselves. And to achieve that, the following reason is required. The sixth reason: He should turn to Allaah and be sincere to Him, and he should make earning His love and His pleasure his wish. So all his thoughts should be about getting closer to Allaah and earning His love, and if his heart becomes filled with loving Allaah, how can he then be content with being preoccupied with thinking about his envious and his oppressor and how take revenge from him? Such will only be hosted by a ruined heart which is not occupied with loving Allaah and seeking His pleasure. The seventh reason: Repenting to Allaah, from the sins that caused his enemies to overcome him. Verily, Allaah the exalted said: {And whatever of misfortune that befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned} Ash-Shuraa 30, and He said to the companions- best of creation after he peace is upon him-: {(what is the matter with you) when a single disaster smites you, although you smote (your enemies) with one twice as great, you say: from where does this come to us? Say: it is from yourselves (because of your evil deeds)} Aal Imraan 165. The servant has only been afflicted with whom is harming him only because of a sin which he is either aware of or unaware of, and the sins that the servant is unaware of are folds of that which he is aware of, and that which he did and forgot is folds of that which he remembers. And in the famous Du’aa: “O Allaah I seek refuge in You from associating partners in You while I know and I seek Your forgiveness for that which I do not know” (1) So that which the servant needs to seek forgiveness for which he does not know is folds and folds of that which he knows, for that he has only been afflicted with whom harms him because of a sin. A man from the Salaf was spoken to harshly and reviled by another man, so he said to him: stand here until I go inside the house and come out to you. He went inside, he prostrated to Allaah and called upon Him entreatingly and he repented to Him. Then he went out to him and the man who reviled him asked him: what did you do? And he replied: I repented to Allaah from the sin by which He afflicted me with you. Nothing is more evil than sins and its necessitations; if one is saved from sins he is saved from its necessitations. Nothing is more beneficial to the servant than coming up with true repentance if he is oppressed or harmed. The sign of his happiness is him being preoccupied with his sins and his shortcomings, and being preoccupied with rectifying himself and repenting from sins. However, not everyone is guided to know this. The eighth reason: Preforming philanthropy and giving away charity as much as he can. Verily, this has an amazing effect in repelling trial, envious eye and evil of the envious, and if the only proof on that are the experiments of nations in past and present it would be sufficient. Hardly envy harms someone who gives away charity, and even if some harm afflicts him, it would be gentle and he will be aided through it, and the good end will be his. The philanthropist is in the guardian of his charity, he is using soldiers that are defending him while he is a sleep, so whoever has an enemy but has no soldiers, his enemy is about to seize him even if this happens after a time. The ninth reason: This is from the hardest of reasons on souls and only someone whose portion from Allaah is great will be guided to it, extinguishing the fire of the envious and the oppressor by being good to him. The more he increses in oppression, ham, evil and envy, you increase in bring good to him and giving advice to him and having sympathy for him, and I do not think you would believe that this is better than retaliating to him so listen now to His saying: {The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel (evil deed) with one which is better, then verily he between you and whom was enmity, (will become) as though he was a close friend. But none is granted it (the above quality) except those who are patient, and none is granted it except the owner of great portion (of happiness in hereafter and a high moral in this world). And if an evil whisper from Satan tries to turn you away, then seek refuge in Allaah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower} Fussilat 34-36. And He said: {those will be given their reward twice over, because they are patient and repel with good deed, and spend (in charity) out of what We have provided them} Al-Qasas 54. Ponder over the incident when our Prophet peace is upon him was beaten by his people and they caused him to bleed, he said: “O Allaah, forgive my people, verily they know not” (2). He met their great evil with four good deeds: 1-he forgave them. 2-he sought forgiveness for them. 3-he sought excuse for them by saying “they know not”. 4-he sought sympathy for them by mentioning them to be from him “my people” like the man who intercedes for a relative saying: this is my son. Listen now to what will make doing that easy on the soul: You know there are sins you committed which only Allaah knows about, and you fear the consequences of these sins and you hope that Allaah forgive you these sins. However, Allaah does not only forgive you these sins, He also honors you and brings to you benefits more than what you expect. So if you hope that Allaah treats you sins with goodness, it is incumbent upon you to treat the evil of His creation with goodness because the reward is similar to the act, Allaah will deal with your sins the same way you deal with the evil of others so seek revenge or forgive, it is up to you. So whoever looks at it this way, it will be easy on him to repel the evil with good deed, on the top of that, he is aided by Allaah. A man complained to the Prophet peace is upon him that his relatives are evil to him and he is good to them, the Prophet said to him: “if you remain like that, there will continue to be a supporter from Allaah with you” (3). And something else will come along with that, people will praise him and back him over his enemy, everyone who hears that he is being good to the person who is being evil to him will naturally lean towards the person who is being good. And the person who is being evil to him will have two to choose from: he will either become his friend due to his goodness or he will be anguished and cease his evil because the person who is being good to his enemy he is tormenting him more than if he was to seek revenge. And whoever tries this he will know it the true knowing. The tenth reason and it gathers all of that: Singling the monotheism to Allaah and turning to Whom cause reasons to occur and knowing that harm or benefit occur only by the permission of Allaah. He the exalted said: {And if Allaah touches you with harm, there is none who can remove it except He, and if He intends any good for you, there is none who can repel His favour which He causes it to reach whoever of His slaves He wills} Yunus 107. The Prophet peace is upon him said to Abdul-llaah bin Al-Abbaas-Allaah is pleased with them-: “And know that if the Nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, they would not benefit you except with what Allaah had already prescribed for you. And if they were to gather together to harm you with anything, they would not harm you except with what Allaah had already prescribed against you.” (4) So if the servant singles Tawheed to Allaah, his heart will be voided from the fearing other than Allaah, and Allaah will protect him according to his faith. Some of the Salaf said: whoever turns to Allaah completely, Allaah will turn to him completely, and whoever turns away from Allaah completely, Allaah will turn away from him completely, and whoever is once here and once there, Allaah will be once for him and once not for him. So Tawheed is the greatest fortress which whoever enters will be saved. Some of the Salaf said: whoever fears Allaah, everything will fear him, and whoever does not fear Allaah, He will cause to him to fear everything. So those are ten reasons to repel the evil of the envious and magician, and nothing is more beneficial [to the servant] other than turning to Allaah, having reliance upon Him and not fearing other than Him. Whoever hangs his heart on other than Allaah he will be left to that whom/which he hanged his heart on, and whoever fears other than Allaah he will be afflicted with whom/what he feared, and whoever hopes from other than Allaah, he will be let down by whom he hoped from. That is the tradition of Allaah in his creation {and you will not find any change in the way of Allaah} Al-Ahzaab 62. And I add to that the following reason: Be aware to whom you inform about or expose to the blessings that are bestowed upon you from Allaah, there is one things that many people do today without realizing how it may harm them and that is posting pictures of their cars, house furniture or other blessings on Facebook or Twitter. I know most Muslims wish goodness for their brothers/sisters, however there are some whom their hearts are tormented by being envious towards others, and one may not know about them unless they do or say something that reveals what they hide but it could be too late by that time. And remember what Ya’qoob ‘alyhis-salaam said to his son Yusuf ‘alyhis-salaam when he told him about the dream he had: {O my son, relate not your vision to your brothers, lest they arrange a plot against you. Verily, Satan is to man an open enemy} Yusuf 5. I ask Allaah to purify our heats from having envy or ill-will towards other Muslims, and I ask Him to protect us from the envy of the envious, Allaahumma aameen. Peace and blessing be upon our Prophet, his household and his companions. Source: Badaa’ul-Fawaa’id by Ibn Qayyem Al-Jawziyyah vol 2 with some abridgement. Footnotes: 1-Collected by Al-Bukhaaree in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad and Al-Albaanee graded it authentic. 2-Collected by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim. 3-Collected by Muslim. 4-Collected by At-Tirmithee and Al-Albaanee graded it authentic.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:16:45 +0000
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