in Surah al-Nisāʾ: “And indeed, among you are those who hold back; then if calamity befalls you he says, ‘Allah has favored me, for I was not present with them as a witness.’ But if bounty from Allah reaches you, he will surely say—as though there had never been any bond of affection between you and him—‘Oh, would that I had been with them; I would have achieved a great triumph!’” ⦗4:72-73⦘

Such laggards do not love for their believing brothers what they love for themselves. When their brothers are struck by misfortune they rejoice at being singled out, and when their brothers receive a blessing they feel no joy for them; instead they wish to secure a share of it for themselves. They rejoice only in worldly gain that comes to them or in some worldly harm that is turned away from them, for they do not love Allah, His Messenger, or the Hereafter. Had they loved them, they would have loved their brothers as well, rejoiced at the grace that reached them, and felt pain at the calamities that befell them. Whoever is not gladdened by what gladdens the believers and distressed by what distresses the believers is not of them.

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī: I heard al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr delivering a sermon and saying, “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: ‘The likeness of the believers in their mutual affection, mercy, and compassion is that of a single body: when one limb suffers, the rest of the body responds with fever and sleeplessness.’”

Likewise, the two Ṣaḥīḥs record from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “A believer toward another believer is like a building—each part supports the other,” and he interlaced his fingers.

Avaricious greed (shuh) is a disease, miserliness is a disease, and envy is worse than miserliness. As in the hadith reported by Abū Dāwūd, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Envy consumes good deeds just as fire consumes firewood, while charity extinguishes sin just as water extinguishes fire.” The miser withholds from himself, whereas the envier detests Allah’s favor upon His servants. A person may give freely to those who further his own interests yet envy his peers; another may be miserly without envying others. Shuh is the root of all this. Allah the Exalted says in Surahs al-Hashr and al-Taghābun: “Whoever is safeguarded from the greed of his own soul—it is they who are the successful.”

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Beware of greed, for it destroyed those before you: it commanded them to be miserly and they were miserly, commanded them to commit injustice and they committed injustice, and commanded them to cut family ties and they cut them.”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf used to make abundant supplication while circumambulating the Kaʿbah, saying, “O Allah, protect me from the greed of my soul.” Someone remarked, “How often you repeat this supplication!” He replied, “If I am protected from the greed of my soul, I am protected from greed itself, injustice, and the severing of kinship.”

Envy inevitably leads to wrongdoing. In sum, miserliness and envy are illnesses that cause the soul to loathe what benefits it and even to love what harms it; for that reason envy is coupled with rancor and anger.

As for the sickness of lust and infatuation, it is the soul’s love for