– “Do not turn your backs on one another.” Abū ʿUbayd said: tadābur (mutual aversion) is to show disregard and shun someone, taken from the image of a man giving his companion his back and turning his face away; in other words, it is cutting ties.
– “Let none of you bid against the sale already concluded by another.” That is: once an item has been sold, someone else comes and offers the buyer his own goods so that the buyer purchases them instead, thereby cancelling the first sale.
– “He does not wrong him.” ẓulm (injustice) is transgressing against the right and inclining toward falsehood. Its kinds are many and cannot be counted; a fuller discussion will come, Allah willing.
– “Nor does he forsake him.” Forsaking (khidhlān) is withholding support: a Muslim is insulted, humiliated, or deprived of his due, and his brother—though able to help—holds back and offers no assistance; that is forsaking him.
– “Nor does he look down on him.” The verb ḥaqara means to belittle or humiliate; what is intended here is to act arrogantly toward one’s brother, elevate oneself above him, and magnify oneself in comparison to him.
– Taqwā (God-fearingness): to have taqwā of Allah is to carry out His commands in hope of what He possesses and avoid His prohibitions out of fear of His punishment. The root of taqwā is in the heart, and its effects appear in one’s actions.
– “It is enough evil for a person…”—that is, it suffices him as a complete share of evil and vile character… that he should despise his brother. Grammatically, the phrase “bi-ḥasbi imriʾin” is the subject (with the preposition bi being superfluous), and the clause “an yaḥqira akhāhu…” is its predicate.
What is derived from the ḥadīth:
- This is a momentous ḥadīth that contains a host of noble Islamic manners by which a Muslim endears himself to his brother, so that the Muslims’ word becomes one, their ranks are united, their dispersion is gathered, and they become one community and a brotherhood of believers.
The first of these manners is: “Do not envy one another,” meaning none of you should envy the other. Envy (ḥasad) is embedded in human nature; a person dislikes that someone of his own kind surpass him in any virtue. The prohibition here concerns wishing for the removal of a blessing from another servant—whether one hopes that the blessing will transfer to oneself or merely disappear from the envied person.