Tom Facchine – How Envy Destroys Nations

So, we have حَاسِد and حَاسِد means the

envier.

It is اسم فاعل.

Notice when Allah uses nouns versus when He

uses verbs.

When Allah ﷻ uses verbs, it indicates an

action that someone is doing, but it might

not be an essential unchanging quality that they

have.

Okay?

When Allah ﷻ uses nouns, it means that

this is an essential quality that this person

has.

It is like جامد.

It is like ثابت.

Right?

So, when Allah ﷻ says حَاسِد, it is

the envier.

It is somebody who is gripped with envy.

Somebody who, envy is a consistent, relentless part

of what they do.

They are in the clutches of envy.

Allah ﷻ could have had us ask for

protection from many things.

And a few things are mentioned in Falaq.

So, He chooses very specific things.

One of them is this, envy.

Why envy?

Why not like murderers?

Why not like, you know, burglars?

Why not like, you know, genocide cheerleaders who

teach at Columbia University?

I don't know.

No, He had us ask for protection from

the envious.

And it is really interesting because envy, within

the Qur'an, is, it is almost like

a medicine.

It is a sin that leads to many,

many other types of sins.

The first story that Allah ﷻ tells us

in Surah Al-Baqarah is the story of

Adam ﷺ and Iblis.

And essentially, the story of Iblis is a

story of envy and jealousy.

Why does Iblis reject Allah's commandment?

Why does Iblis, after having been raised due

to his own merit to be hanging out

with the angels, why does he go through

the fall and become so disgraced, because of

his envy of Adam ﷺ and the pride

that he demonstrates in other Surahs, like Surah

Al-A'raf and other places where he

says, how can I bow to this one?

I'm better than him.

I'm created of fire.

He's only created from clay, etc., etc.

Now, the other interesting thing is that why

do you think after telling the story of

Adam and Iblis, Adam ﷺ and Iblis, in

Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah ﷻ goes right to

the story of Bani Israel and most of

the Surahs taken up with the story of

Bani Israel, because Bani Israel is also affected

with hasad.

Allah ﷻ says elsewhere in the Qur'an

that the reason many of the people of

previous prophetic nations have disbelieved in the Qur

'an and disbelieved and rejected and denied the

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is because they're jealous, is

because of their envy, that they thought that

they were special, God's chosen people, children of

the light, you could say, because God gave

them revelation and prophets at a certain point

in history without realizing that the point of

being given revelation is to follow God's guidance

whenever and wherever it comes.

And so if a new prophet or a

new revelation emerges, I should say a new

prophet emerges or a new revelation is sent

down, your relationship with Allah ﷻ is such

that you follow that guidance, you follow that

prophet, whether he's from you or not, whether

it's from your chosen group of people or

somebody outside.

But if you are in the clutches of

jealousy and in the clutches of envy, that

becomes impossible.

You can't do it.

You can't bring yourself to do it.

You will be prevented from following the truth

because the jealousy and the envy has wrecked

your heart.

And so it's a big deal, which is

why Allah ﷻ has us, قُلْ وَمِنْ شَرِّي

حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ You say it.

Ask Allah ﷻ for protection from the envier

when they envy.

Abdullah asked, do you think there is a

relationship between envy and bigotry?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

The coward and the person who is envious

at the end of the day is prone

to this sort of totalitarian streak.

They can't tolerate any sort of difference.

And we see that play out over and

over and over again.

Yeah.

Iblis was the first bigot technically.

And by bigot we mean you're taking characteristics

that are not chosen, you don't have any

control over, and you're claiming supremacy based off

of them.

So this is Zionism, right?

Zionism is a specific example of this.

How can you heal your heart from jealousy?

There are several ways.

One of them is to spend time with

people who are lower than you.

Spend time with the poor.

Spend time with those who are injured in

such a way where it is a debilitating,

permanent injury, paralyzed people, things like this.

Spend time in their service.

Okay?

Because at the end of the day, jealousy

is tied to ingratitude.

And so if we're jealous of somebody else,

we're not grateful for the ni'ma and the

ni'm, the blessings that Allah ﷻ has given

us.

And the Prophet ﷺ said, make sure that

you do not look to those people who

are above you, look to those below you,

so that you do not belittle Allah's blessings.

So spending time with people who are worse

off than you is extremely important.

Serving, khidmah, is the second thing.

Serving people, and that could be serving people

in your home, in your extended family, in

your neighborhood, at your mosque, whatever it is,

spending your time in service is one of

the most important, humbling things that's out there.

Yes, 100%.

So Seamus brings up a point that when

it comes to not being grateful, it's also

not trusting Allah's qadr and your own naseeb.

What is your rizq?

What has Allah decreed for you?

You're basically saying you're not happy with it.

Right?

And this is, I mean, bil munasaba, right?

Like we're talking about, some sins are like

meta sins, like sins of the heart, and

they can trickle down to other sins.

People who resort to magic, people who resort

to sorcery and fortune telling and black magic,

what's the vast majority of people, what are

they motivated by to do such a thing?

They're not happy with Allah's decree for them.

They're not, usually with a relationship or with

kids or with a job or something like

that.

They're not content with what Allah has decreed

for them and they want more or they

want different.

We can also make, sure we make dua.

Thank you very much.

I forgot that one.

Make dua for the one that you're jealous

for.

Excellent.

Very good.

Abdullah says, is there a healthy kind of

jealousy?

Like I wish I was more like so

and so.

Yes, the Prophet ﷺ actually said that jealousy

is permissible with two things.

With the Quran, right?

So you're able to be like, man, I

wish I was a hafidh like that guy.

I wish I could recite like that guy.

And with someone who spends wealth in the

way of Allah, someone who spends wealth in

a way that Allah likes in charity and

the like.

Now you can say, oh, I wish that

I was wealthy like him so that I

could spend my money in the way that

he spends it so that I could help

the ummah so that I could, you know,

feed the poor, this sort of thing.