Likewise, envy frequently arises among those who share authority or wealth, when some receive a portion while another misses out. It also arises among peers because one dislikes the other being preferred over him, as with Joseph’s brothers, or with one of Adam’s two sons towards his brother. He envied him because Allah accepted his brother’s offering but did not accept his own. He envied the faith and piety with which Allah had favoured his brother—just as the Jews envy the Muslims—and killed him on that account.

Hence it has been said that the first sins through which Allah was disobeyed were three: greed, arrogance, and envy. Greed came from Adam, arrogance from Satan, and envy from Cain, when he killed Abel. A hadith states:

“No one escapes three things: envy, suspicion, and apprehension over ill omens. I shall tell you how to escape them: when you feel envy, do not hate; when you suspect, do not treat your suspicion as established fact; and when you fear an ill omen, proceed.”

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā narrated it from Abū Hurayrah. In the Sunan collections, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is reported to have said:

“The disease of the nations before you has crept among you: envy and hatred. It is the shaver. I do not say that it shaves the hair; rather, it shaves away religion.”

He thus called it a disease, just as he called miserliness a disease when he said:

“What disease is worse than miserliness?”

It is therefore clear that this is an illness. Another hadith states:

“I seek refuge in You from reprehensible traits of character, desires, and diseases.”

Thus he mentioned diseases alongside traits of character and desires.