Be patient with the envier’s envy,
for your patience will be his undoing.
Fire consumes itself
when it finds nothing else to consume.

Some exegetes said concerning Allah Most High’s words, “Our Lord, show us the two who led us astray, from among the jinn and humankind, so that we may place them beneath our feet and they may be among the lowest” [Fussilat: 29], that the one from among the jinn was Iblīs and the one from among humankind was Cain. This is because Iblīs was the first to establish the precedent of disbelief, while Cain was the first to establish the precedent of murder; envy lay at the root of it all. The poet said:

The raven once possessed a gait of its own
in bygone days of old;
it envied the sandgrouse and tried to walk like it,
but was stricken by a crippling spasm. (1)

It is related in a hadith from Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the falsest of speech. Do not pry into one another’s affairs, do not spy on one another, do not envy one another, do not turn your backs on one another, and do not hate one another. O servants of Allah, be brothers.” (2)

Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) also related that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Do not hate one another, do not envy one another, and do not turn your backs on one another. O servants of Allah, be brothers. It is not lawful for a Muslim to forsake his brother for more than three days.” (3)