Envy and Jealousy: The Blessing in Someone Else's Hands

In Brief

The Qur'an does not treat envy as a vague character flaw. It names it as a specific harm and places it among the things one seeks refuge from (113:5). In the text, envy is not "noticing what someone else has" — it is wanting that blessing to leave them, and eventually acting on that wish. The subject is handled twice over: through narrated episodes (12:8-9, 28:79-82) and through a direct command (4:32). What is striking about that command is that it does not stop at prohibition. It immediately supplies a redirection — "ask Allāh of His bounty" — turning the gaze from someone else's share to one's own. Below, the verses are read in order, the root counts are taken from this platform's word tables, and the closing section separates what the text states from what is inference.

Verses Discussed

• 113:5 — Among the evils one seeks refuge from: "an envier when he envies".
• 2:109 — Envy persisting after the truth has become clear; the response commanded is pardon, not retaliation.
• 4:54 — "Or do they envy people for what Allāh has given them of His bounty?"
• 4:32 — Wishing for what others were favored with is forbidden; each has a share of what they earned; "ask Allāh of His bounty".
• 12:8 — Joseph's brothers measuring their father's love against their own standing.
• 12:9 — Where that measurement leads: a plan to kill or remove.
• 20:131 — "Do not extend your eyes" toward the adornment given to others.
• 15:88 — The same warning in a different setting.
• 28:79 — Onlookers wishing for what Qārūn was given.
• 28:80 — The answer of those given knowledge.
• 28:82 — What the same onlookers concluded once the wealth was gone.
• 14:7 — Gratitude increases.
• 57:23 — Neither despairing over what is lost nor exulting over what is given.
• 43:32 — Livelihoods are apportioned, and not by us.
• 16:71 — Difference in provision stated as a fact.
• 3:19 and 42:14 — Division arising, after knowledge came, "out of jealous animosity".

A Harm With a Name

The densest treatment of envy sits in one of the shortest chapters. Sūrat al-Falaq lists four evils to seek refuge from, and the last is this:

وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ

"And from the evil of an envier when he envies." (113:5)

(interpretation) Note the construction: the harm is attached not to the person as such but to the moment of envying — "when he envies". The verse does not brand a human type; it marks a state as it emerges. The same chapter lists darkness and the blowers in knots (113:1-4); envy closes that sequence as the harm that comes out of a person from within.

The second passage defines what envy targets, and does so as a question:

أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَىٰ مَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ

"Or do they envy people for what Allāh has given them of His bounty?" (4:54)

(interpretation) The object of envy is stated plainly: what God has given. That moves envy out of the register of personal rivalry and into a quarrel with the apportioning itself. The envier says, in effect, "let this person not have this" — and by the logic of the sentence has thereby passed a verdict on the one who gave it.

The third passage shows what envy does and what the one envied is told to do:

حَسَدًا مِّنْ عِندِ أَنفُسِهِم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۖ فَٱعْفُوا۟ وَٱصْفَحُوا۟

"…out of envy from themselves [even] after the truth has become clear to them. So pardon and overlook until Allāh delivers His command." (2:109)

(interpretation) Two things happen here. First, envy is shown to survive knowledge: the truth is clear, the attitude is unchanged. Second, the person on the receiving end is given a behaviour — pardon and forbearance, not counter-attack. In the Qur'an, the first instruction given to the target of envy is not to punish the envier.

A related state — communities splitting "out of jealous animosity" after knowledge reached them — appears at 3:19 and 42:14. The word there is not ḥasad but baghy, commonly rendered as jealousy, rivalry, or resentment.

Joseph's Brothers: From Comparison to Plan

The Qur'an's most detailed portrait of envy is a domestic scene. First the comparison is made:

لَيُوسُفُ وَأَخُوهُ أَحَبُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِينَا مِنَّا وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ

"Joseph and his brother are more beloved to our father than we, while we are a clan." (12:8)

Then the comparison becomes a plan:

ٱقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ أَوِ ٱطْرَحُوهُ أَرْضًا يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ

"Kill Joseph or cast him out to [another] land; the countenance of your father will then be only for you." (12:9)

(interpretation) The distance between these two verses is the whole mechanism. In 12:8 nothing is missing: the brothers are not starving, not cast out. There is only a comparison — "more beloved than we". In 12:9 that comparison does not produce an effort to earn more affection; it produces a proposal to remove the one who has it. That is envy's signature: the remedy always aims at the other person's blessing, never at one's own share.

Where Not to Fix the Eyes

The Qur'an also places a warning at the point where envy begins — at looking:

وَلَا تَمُدَّنَّ عَيْنَيْكَ إِلَىٰ مَا مَتَّعْنَا بِهِۦٓ أَزْوَٰجًا مِّنْهُمْ زَهْرَةَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا لِنَفْتِنَهُمْ فِيهِ

"And do not extend your eyes toward that by which We have given enjoyment to [some] categories of them, [its being but] the splendor of worldly life by which We test them." (20:131)

The rest of the verse names where the gaze should go instead:

وَرِزْقُ رَبِّكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰ

"And the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring." (20:131)

(interpretation) The verb is not "look" but "stretch out the eyes" — what is forbidden is not the first glance but the lingering. And what is being looked at is twice qualified: it is "splendor", and it is a "test". With those two words the text hints that envy usually rests on a misreading — the envier has mistaken a trial for a prize. The same warning appears at 15:88, where it is followed by a command to be gentle and humble.

The Qārūn narrative turns this into an event. First the wish is spoken:

يَـٰلَيْتَ لَنَا مِثْلَ مَآ أُوتِىَ قَـٰرُونُ إِنَّهُۥ لَذُو حَظٍّ عَظِيمٍ

"Oh, would that we had like what was given to Qārūn. Indeed, he is one of great fortune." (28:79)

The reply does not argue about wealth but about the measure:

ثَوَابُ ٱللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لِّمَنْ ءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًا

"The reward of Allāh is better for he who believes and does righteousness." (28:80)

And in the end the same people revise their own wish:

وَيْكَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ وَيَقْدِرُ

"Oh, how Allāh extends provision to whom He wills of His servants and restricts it!" (28:82)

(interpretation) Because the narrative shows the end of the thing that was coveted, it suggests that coveting has something to do with incomplete information. The speakers in 28:79 are not envious in the destructive sense; they merely wish for the same. Yet by 28:82 they have had to revise the standard by which they were measuring.

The Remedy Sitting Next to the Prohibition

The central verse addresses envy one level earlier than behaviour — at the level of the wish:

وَلَا تَتَمَنَّوْا۟ مَا فَضَّلَ ٱللَّهُ بِهِۦ بَعْضَكُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ

"And do not wish for that by which Allāh has made some of you exceed others." (4:32)

The verse does not end in prohibition. A statement of fact follows, then a redirection:

"For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned. And ask Allāh of His bounty." (4:32)

(interpretation) The structure has three steps: prohibition (do not covet another's share), statement (each has a share of what they earned), redirection (ask the Giver for your own). The third step is what turns a moral warning into something practicable: envy subsides only when it is displaced by another desire. The object of "ask" is not the other person's property but the source itself.

Gratitude sits at the other end of the same logic:

لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ

"If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]" (14:7)

And emotional balance:

لِّكَيْلَا تَأْسَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ وَلَا تَفْرَحُوا۟ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمْ

"In order that you not despair over what has eluded you and not exult [in pride] over what He has given you." (57:23)

(interpretation) This verse closes both sides of envy at once: grieving over what you did not get, and boasting about what you did. Both feed on comparison. The Qur'an records difference in provision as a plain fact (16:71, 43:32) and says the apportioning is not ours:

وَرَحْمَتُ رَبِّكَ خَيْرٌ مِّمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ

"But the mercy of your Lord is better than whatever they accumulate." (43:32)

Root and Word Note

The counts below come from this platform's word and root tables.

(interpretation) The numbers say something on their own: the word ḥasad itself is rare — four verses. The theme is carried mostly by descriptions of the behaviour rather than by the noun: wishing (4:32), fixing the eyes (20:131), comparing (12:8), resenting (3:19). Few occurrences, wide subject.

Also, 113:5 places two words from the same root side by side: ḥāsid (one who envies) and ḥasada (he envied). That doubling supports reading the harm as tied to the act rather than to a permanent label.

Different Readings

(interpretation) A linguistic reading stresses that the forbidden verb in 4:32 is tamannī — wishing for something whose attainment is not in one's own hands. On this reading the verse does not forbid working to obtain something; it forbids the fantasy of another's portion passing to oneself. The familiar distinction between admiring emulation and destructive envy is largely derived from this verb.

(interpretation) A contextual reading notes that 4:32 sits among the inheritance and share verses (4:11-12, 4:33). Its first addressee is someone who feels short-changed in a distribution, and the clause about women's earnings answers a specific objection of that setting. The general ethical principle is then drawn out of that concrete context.

(interpretation) A historical-social reading observes that in 2:109, 4:54, 3:19 and 42:14 envy is less a private feeling than a group behaviour: one community unable to accept a favour granted to another. Here envy is presented as the engine of religious and political fracture — and the remedy is likewise social, the pardon and forbearance commanded in 2:109.

(interpretation) A moral-psychological reading puts 20:131 next to 57:23 and finds envy described as a problem of attention rather than of feeling. What is forbidden is not the emotion but the sustained look and the continued comparison. On this reading the close of 4:32 is less a devotional recommendation than an instruction to redirect attention.

These readings are not mutually exclusive; they foreground different aspects of the same set of verses.

Honest Limits

What the text states:

• Envy is counted among the evils one is told to seek refuge from (113:5).
• Wishing for what others were favored with is prohibited, and asking the Giver for one's own bounty is commanded in its place (4:32).
• Fixing the eyes on the worldly adornment given to others is prohibited, and that adornment is called a test (20:131).
• In at least one narrative, envy escalated to a plan to kill (12:8-9).
• The first instruction to the one envied is pardon and forbearance (2:109).
• Difference in provision among people is recorded as a fact (16:71, 43:32).

What is inference:

• The neat rule "emulation is permitted, envy is forbidden" is not stated in those terms in any verse; it is read out of the verb in 4:32 and the description in 113:5.
• Linking envy to the "evil eye" is not made in the text; 113:5 names the envier's harm without describing a mechanism.
• No step-by-step method for uprooting envy from the heart is given; the close of 4:32, together with 14:7 and 57:23, points a direction rather than prescribing a technique.
• The brothers' conduct in 12:8-9 is narrative; it does not imply that envy always ends in violence.

This article is not a legal ruling. It aims to show what the verses say and what may reasonably be inferred from them, keeping the two apart.

Conclusion: The Qur'an names envy as a harm that comes out of a person and that one should seek refuge from (113:5), and describes the state that produces it as comparison and a lingering gaze (12:8, 20:131). But the text does not stop at prohibition: 4:32 supplies an exit inside the same sentence — remember that you have a share, and ask for what you want from the actual source. The Qārūn episode, where the onlookers end up revising their own wish (28:82), shows why that redirection is reasonable: the true worth of what is coveted is usually unknown at the moment of coveting.

Related Articles

• Gratitude in the Qur'an
• Patience in the Qur'an
• Worldly wealth and contentment
• Qārūn and wealth
• The story of Joseph
• Anger and forgiveness

Source: Qur'anic verses (translations: Saheeh International; Turkish: M. Okuyan) + kuranokuyan.com. Qur'an-centred, non-sectarian, cited.