Save Yourself from Jealousy

Wanting to see oneself as great is a natural urge. But the true human being is one who sees greatness in others and becomes motivated by this to work harder than before.

Satan is a person’s greatest enemy. That is why the Quran calls Satan ‘the devil’. In the early period of human creation, God commanded Satan to bow down before Adam but he refused to do so. The conversation which ensued between God and Satan is described thus in the Quran: “God asked, ‘What prevented you from prostrating yourself when I commanded you to?’ He replied, ‘I am better than he is; You created me from fire, while You created him from clay.’ God said, ‘Get down from here! This is no place for your arrogance. Get out! You are contemptible!’ Satan said, ‘Give me respite until the Day of Resurrection,’ and God replied, ‘You are granted respite.’

Then Satan said, ‘Because You have put me in the wrong, I will lie in ambush for them on Your straight path: then I will surely come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left, and then You will find most of them ungrateful.’ He said, ‘Get out of here, despised, and rejected! I shall fill Hell with all of those who follow you.’” (7:12-18)

The real weakness of a person because of which evil develops in him is that he wants to see himself as great. But there are differences between people here according to the very law of nature. There are some who have less and there are others who have more. Therefore when someone finds another greater than himself, he becomes jealous. This jealousy causes a negative mindset and his entire character becomes negative.

Wanting to see oneself as great is a natural urge. This explains the urge to compete with others. But this is a course of action marred by jealousy and envy. And then once one suffers from jealousy, he holds all kinds of evil as legitimate for him to indulge in. The true human being is one who sees another as great and becomes motivated by this to work harder than before.