for whatever the Emigrants had been given of wealth or social standing—and it is precisely such things that ordinarily provoke envy.

Between the clans of Aws and Khazraj there was a rivalry in matters of faith: whenever one group performed an act by which they gained merit with Allah and His Messenger, the other group longed to do the like. This was a competition in deeds that draw a person near to Allah, as He says in Sūrat al-Muṭaffifīn: “And for that let those who vie, vie” (83:26).

As for envy that is blameworthy in every respect, Allah Most High has spoken of it concerning the Jews in Sūrat al-Baqarah: “Many of the People of the Book wish they could turn you back into unbelievers after you have believed, out of envy from themselves, after the truth has become clear to them” (2:109). They yearn—out of envy—for your apostasy; thus Allah made envy itself the cause of that yearning after the truth had been made manifest to them. When they saw that you had been granted blessings they had never attained, they envied you.

The same matter is addressed in another verse, in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ: “Or do they envy people for what Allah has granted them of His bounty? We had already given the family of Abraham the Scripture and wisdom, and We gave them a mighty kingdom. Some of them believed in it, and some turned away from it; and Hell is sufficient as a blazing fire” (4:54-55).

And He, exalted is He, said: “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of daybreak … from the evil of the envier when he envies” (113:1,4-5). A number of exegetes relate that this chapter was revealed because of the Jews’ envy of the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—until they worked sorcery against him; the spell was cast by the Jew Labīd ibn al-Aʿṣam.

Thus, the envier who hates the blessing Allah has bestowed upon another is an unjust aggressor, whereas the one who merely dislikes being outdone and wishes to match that favour is forbidden to feel so—except in matters that bring one nearer to Allah. If he wishes to be granted the like of what another has received in order to draw closer to Allah, there is no harm in that; yet for the heart to turn away even from this, so that it pays no heed to another’s condition at all, is better.

Should a person act upon his envy, he becomes an unjust transgressor deserving punishment unless he repents, while the one envied is wronged and commanded to show patience and God-fearingness. He must endure the harm of the envier, pardon him, and overlook his offence—just as Allah Most High said in Sūrat al-Baqarah, after the verse just cited: “so forgive and overlook until Allah brings His command” (2:109).

Joseph too was tried by the envy of his brothers, who said, “Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, though we are a strong band; surely our father is in manifest error” (12:8). They envied the two of them because their father favoured them. For that reason Jacob said to Joseph, “O my son, do not relate your dream to your brothers, lest they plot against you; truly Satan is a manifest enemy to man” (12:5). Thereafter they wronged him by plotting his murder, throwing him into the well, and selling him as a slave to people travelling toward a land of disbelief, so that he became the property of a community of unbelievers.

Later, after having been wronged in this way, Joseph was tested once more by someone who sought to invite him