“Envy devours faith the way fire devours wood,” Imam Jaffer Sadiq (as)
Over the weekend, a J-school colleague of mine posted a status on Facebook that caused quite a stir.
“Just got a paid internship with the CBC!!” he exclaimed, causing his friends from far and wide to hit the “like” button and offer him their heartiest congratulations.
A paid internship at a reputable news agency for a student fresh off of his second year at school is probably as good as it gets.
Being an ambitious soon-to-be journalist myself, I was delighted for my friend, yet couldn’t help but think how awesome it would be if I had gotten a paid stint over the summer with the CBC.
Was I feeling a tad jealous of my friend’s mighty impressive achievement?
But as it turned out (and you’ll find out why at the end of this post), things weren’t as rosy as they seemed for my journo friend.
***
The same way the body can be afflicted with diseases, so can the soul. Envy is a spiritual disease that is frowned upon in just about all religions and cultures.
Buddha once said, “He who wants to have peace of mind, should not be envious of others.” In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul of Tarsus beautifully writes: “Love is kind, love is patient, and does not envy anyone.”
But when it comes to Islam, envy is looked at as being of two kinds: negative and positive, with the latter not only being permissible, but recommended.
First and foremost, it’s important to make the distinction between jealousy and envy.
When one is jealous, they hope to keep what they have, be it a good quality or a shiny car, and are fearful of losing it to somebody else.
On the other hand, when one is envious, they wish to have what somebody else has, and wish that attribute or possession is removed from the original possessor.
The Arabic word for envy is hassad, and carries with it the negative connotation of the trait. I have yet to find an English word for the positive version of envy, which is gibtaah in Arabic.
So you ask, how can envy possibly be good?
Here’s an example: you see your friend has a great job, a sleek car, and a happy family.
Instead of thinking, “Crap, I wish I had all of that and he didn’t,” you say, “Wow, good for him. I hope God keeps giving him more and more, and also gives me the same from His mercy.”
A simple dua (supplication), is, “Oh Allah, the same way you gave him success, give me success as well.”
This form of envy also builds unity within a community.
Take a sports team for example. Coaches often speak of how important it is for teammates to enjoy each other’s success.
Similarly, when members of a society are happy for each other’s achievements without wishing them otherwise, it promotes a sense of cohesiveness.
Come to think of it, the negative form of envy is incredibly petty. God has graced us with so many favours and bounties, and yet we still we tend to dwell on what we don’t have.
***
So back to the CBC and internships.
It was, after all, an April Fools’ Day joke, and 20 minutes of fame later, the would-be CBC intern commented on the same post to assure us it was joke.
