1305 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Do not envy one another; do not artificially raise prices; do not harbor hatred; do not turn your backs on one another; and let none of you bid against the sale already agreed upon by his brother. Rather, be, O servants of Allah, brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not wrong him, he does not forsake him, and he does not look down on him. God-fearingness is here”—and he pointed to his chest three times—“It is enough evil for a person to despise his Muslim brother. The blood, wealth, and honor of every Muslim are sacrosanct to every other Muslim.” Narrated by Muslim.⦗1⦘
Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• These four prohibitions come in the reciprocal verbal form, which signifies mutual participation between two or more people; the prohibition, therefore, addresses every Muslim with respect to each of these actions.
• “Do not envy one another” means: none of you should envy the other. Envy is a heart-borne ailment ingrained in human nature. The blameworthy kind is to wish for—or work toward—the removal of the blessing enjoyed by the envied person. Its causes and remedies have been discussed earlier.
• “Do not practice najsh” (artificial price-inflation): najsh—literally “to flush game out of its hiding place”—in Islamic law is raising the price of a commodity without intending to buy it, whether to benefit the seller, to harm the buyer, or simply out of mischief.
• “Do not harbor hatred” means: do not engage in actions that generate mutual hatred among you.