One is given charge of the highest office only when it is known that he will not vie for it, and wealth is entrusted only to someone whose lack of desire for it is manifest. If, however, a person who harbors treachery within is made a trustee, he is like a wolf set to guard the sheep: he can never discharge the trust, for his heart covets the very thing placed in his keeping.

Imam Aḥmad relates in his Musnad, on the authority of Anas, may Allah be pleased with him: “We were once sitting with the Messenger of Allah—Allah bless him and grant him peace—when he said, ‘A man from the people of Paradise will now appear before you from that pass.’ A man of the Anṣār then came, his beard dripping with water from ablution, his sandals slung in his left hand, and he greeted us with salām.

“The next day the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—said the same, and the very same man appeared in the same manner. On the third day the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—repeated his words, and again the same man came forth exactly as before.

“When the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—rose to leave, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, may Allah be pleased with him, followed the man and said, ‘I have quarreled with my father and sworn not to enter his house for three nights. Would you shelter me until the three days pass?’ He replied, ‘Certainly.’

“Anas reports that ʿAbd Allah said he spent three nights with the man and never saw him rise for night prayer. All he did was, whenever he awoke or turned over in bed, he would remember Allah the Mighty and Magnificent and proclaim His greatness until he rose for the dawn prayer. ʿAbd Allah added, ‘Other than that I heard nothing from him but good words.’

“When the three days were over and I was on the verge of thinking little of his deeds, I said, ‘Servant of Allah, there was no anger or estrangement between me and my father. Rather, I heard the Messenger of Allah—Allah bless him and grant him peace—say three times, “A man from the people of Paradise will come forth before you,” and on each occasion it was you. I therefore wished to stay with you to see what you do so that I might follow your example, yet I have not seen you perform many works. What deed of yours earned the testimony of the Messenger of Allah—Allah bless him and grant him peace?’

“He replied, ‘It is nothing more than what you have seen—except that I find in my heart no deceit toward any Muslim, nor any envy for the good that Allah has granted him.’

“ʿAbd Allah said, ‘That is what has raised you to that rank—and it is something we are unable to attain.’”

The remark of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr—“That is what has raised you … and it is something we are unable to attain”—points to the man’s complete freedom from every form of envy. In this very sense Allah Most High praised the Anṣār, saying in Sūrat al-Ḥashr: “…and they find within their breasts no need for what they (the Emigrants) have been given; they give preference over themselves, even though they are in poverty” (59:9). That is, they feel no envy or rancor for the favors bestowed upon their brothers among the Muhājirūn. Some exegetes said the reference is to the spoils of fayʾ, while others said it is to any virtue or precedence; in every case, they harbor no such inward need or desire.