Curing Envy
"Know that envy is one of the major diseases of the heart, and the disease of the heart is not cured except by the medicine of both knowledge and action.
"As for the knowledge cure: it is that you know that your envy harms only yourself and does not harm the one you envy; rather, it benefits him. As for it harming yourself, it is that it nullifies your good deeds and exposes you to the wrath of Allah Most High, for you are discontent with divine destiny and are stingy with Allah's blessings that He has generously bestowed upon His servants from His storehouse. This is the harm to the envier's religious life.
"As for the harm to your worldly life, it is that you do not cease to be in constant sorrow and inescapable grief, which is what your enemy desires for you. Among the most important objectives of your enemy and the most perfect of your enemy's blessings is the sorrow of his envier, for you the envier had wanted a tribulation to befall your enemy, but obtained it for yourself instead.
"The envious one is never devoid of grief and affliction, since your enemy's blessings are not removed. As to the fact that envy benefits your enemy without harming him, it is because the blessing does not disappear by way of the envier's envy. . . .
"As for the action cure: it is that you know the ruling for envy and that which it necessitates with regard to speech and action. So you oppose it and act according to its opposite,* extolling the one you envy, manifesting joy at the blessings bestowed upon him, and behaving humbly toward him. With that, the one envied returns to you as a friend, and envy departs from you, and you are rid of its evil and suffering.
"Allah Most High says in the Qur'an, 'Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better. Then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate!' [41:34]."
* "You oppose envy and do the opposite of envy, by praising your enemy, manifesting happiness with your enemy's blessings, and so on."
