The Cure for Envy and the Extent of Its Effect

Question:
The first question concerns the topic: among the diseases of the heart is envy. To what extent does envy affect the one who is envied? And how does the one who is envied get rid of it? Likewise, how does the one who envies get rid of this disease?

Answer:
This question is about envy. Allah mentioned a cure for it in His great Book: [Surat al-Falaq: 5]. So the believer asks his Lord for safety from the envious, the wrongdoers, and all the sinners. He asks his Lord for safety from all evils and from the evil of people, as Allah advised him to do so: [Surat al-Falaq: 1] to the end of it. So he seeks refuge in Allah from the evil of people, from the evil of the envious, and from the evil of every wrongdoer.
The one who envies starts by harming himself; the one who envies harms himself first. He is afflicted with worry, grief, and distress at the blessings of Allah upon His servants, which harms him. He harms himself—may Allah grant us safety—and he does not harm the one who is envied, but rather he harms himself. It is narrated from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said regarding the cure for envy: meaning, do not do an action that harms the one who is envied. So if a person feels envy, let him repent to Allah, let him turn back from what is in his heart, and let him not do anything that harms the one who is envied.
Some people may feel envy, but they do not stop at envy; rather, they seek to harm the one who is envied. They hurt him with their words, or they seek to remove him from his job, or they seek to harm him in his person, his body, or his religion. This is from the side of envy; it combines envy with injustice. They wrong him in addition to envying him. If they envy him for a job, or for health, or for knowledge, or for something else, they seek to remove this great blessing. They seek to remove it from the one who is envied out of injustice and aggression. May Allah grant us safety.
The path to safety from that is to restrain yourself from it, to remind yourself of Allah, to turn away from envy, and to know that it is a wrong against you and an injustice by you toward the servants of Allah, and a complaint against Allah who bestows His blessings upon His servants, who has distributed His provision among His servants. So what is the reason to envy so-and-so because Allah gave him wealth, or gave him knowledge, or gave him a suitable position, or gave him something else from what Allah has made lawful? Why do you envy him? Allah is the One who distributed the provisions among His servants So this is a complaint from you against your Lord and a bad opinion from you of your Lord. So ask your Lord for well-being, and beware of the evil of your self, your Shaytan, and your nafs that commands evil, and do not actualize your envy through injustice.
As for the one who is envied, the envy of the one who envies does not harm him, unless the envious person seeks to wrong him and hurt him. So let him defend himself if the envious person seeks to wrong him with words, actions, removal from a job, lying about him, or the like. Let him address the matter in a way that removes what the wrongdoer did. And Allah is the Helper.
And in the hadith: May Allah grant us safety.