This is unlike calamities that occur without a person’s choice, such as illness, the death of someone dear to him, or thieves taking his property. In such cases, he is rewarded only for bearing them patiently, not for the calamity itself, though it does expiate his sins. Reward is only for voluntary deeds and their consequences.

Those who are harmed because of their faith and obedience to Allah and His Messenger, and consequently suffer hardship, illness, imprisonment, separation from their homeland, loss of property and family, beatings, insults, or diminished authority and wealth, are following the path of the prophets and their followers, such as the earliest emigrants. They are rewarded for the harm they suffer, and a righteous deed is recorded for them on its account, just as someone striving in Allah’s cause is rewarded for the hunger, thirst, and fatigue he suffers, and for enraging the disbelievers. Although these effects are not themselves acts that he performs, they arise from his voluntary action; they are what are called resultant effects. People have differed over whether these should be considered the acts of the person who brings about their cause, the acts of Allah, or effects with no agent. The correct view is that they are jointly produced by the person who brings about the cause and all the other causes involved. This is why a righteous deed is recorded for him on their account.

The point is that envy is a disease of the soul, and a widespread one: few people escape it. Hence it is said: “None is free