Chapter 2.9. Between Jealousy And Miserliness

Greed is a sickness as is miserliness, and jealousy is worse than miserliness as occurs in the hadith reported by Abu Dawud from the Prophet that he said,

Jealousy eats away at good deeds, just as fire eats away at firewood, and giving charity extinguishes sins just as water extinguishes fire. [Ibn Majah]

This is because the miser only stops himself from having good but the envier dislikes the favours of Allah bestowed upon His servants. It is possible that a person give to those lesser than him who would help him achieve his objectives and yet display jealousy to those of the same level as him just as it is possible for him to be miserly without displaying envy to others. Greed is the basis for this as Allah said,

And whosoever is saved from his greed, such are they who are successful. [Surah al-Hashr (59):9]

In the Sahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim the Prophet said,

Beware of greed for it destroyed those that came before you: it commanded them to be miserly and they were; it commanded them to be oppressive and they were and it commanded them to break the ties of kinship and they did. [Abu Dawud]

Abdur-Rahman bin Awf used to frequently say in his supplication while make Tawaf,

'O Allah! Save my soul from greed.' So a person said to him, 'Why is this your most frequent supplication?' He replied, 'When I safeguard myself from greed, I safeguard myself from greed, miserliness and from severing the ties of kinship.'

And jealousy necessarily leads to oppression.

• The Causes For Jealousy
• The Disease Of Desires And Passionate Love

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