in the form of wishing for a blessing to be lost.
Envy has three degrees, the first being this.
The second is wishing for the absence of a blessing to continue. Such a person resents Allah bestowing a new blessing upon His servant. Rather, he wants that servant to remain in his ignorance, poverty, weakness, distraction of heart from Allah, or lack of religious commitment. He wishes his shortcomings and faults to persist. This is envy directed at a prospective blessing, whereas the first concerns an existing blessing.
Both are envious: enemies of Allah’s blessings and of His servants, detested by Allah Most High and by people. Such a person will never attain leadership or receive sympathy, for people choose as their leaders only those who wish to do them good. They will never willingly choose someone who opposes Allah’s blessings upon them. If he is imposed upon them by force, they regard him as one of the trials and calamities with which Allah has afflicted them. They hate him, and he hates them.
The third kind is the envy of emulation: wishing to enjoy circumstances like those of the person envied, without that person losing his blessing. There is nothing wrong with this, nor is the person who feels it blameworthy. Indeed, it is close to striving to excel. Allah Most High says:
83:26 “And for that let the competitors compete.”
In an authentic report, the Prophet ﷺ said:
“There is no envy except in two cases: a man whom Allah has given wealth and enabled to spend it fully in rightful ways, and a man whom Allah has given wisdom, by which he judges and which he teaches to people.”
This is the envy of emulation. What prompts it is a lofty spirit, love of good qualities, and the desire to resemble those who possess them, join their ranks, and be among their frontrunners, their foremost, and those close on their heels—not their stragglers «1». Such ambition inspires him to compete, race ahead, and hasten to good, while loving the person he seeks to emulate and wishing that Allah’s blessing upon him should endure. This does not fall within the verse in any way.
This surah is therefore one of the greatest remedies for envy, for it encompasses reliance upon Allah,