LESSON OF THE DAY 705

Ayah of the Day:
It is God who gives you life and makes you die, then revives you: man is indeed an ingrate! [22: 66]

Hadith of the Day:
Exercise abstinence from the world and Allah will love you, and abstain from what people have and they will love you. [Tirmidhi]

Wise Quote of the Day:
The amount of knowledge which suffices the believer is that which keeps him in awe of the Divine. [Abu Bakr radi Allah anhu]

Guidance of the Day:
There are two encouragements to help us resist envy. One is intellectual and the other is practical. Intellectually, we have to be convinced that the evils envy causes in our daily life and our spiritual life, both in this world and the Hereafter, must be blamed on ourselves alone. The one we envy is totally innocent and our envy is not ever going to cause him any harm. On the contrary, it may do him good here, and certainly will enhance his spiritual life in the Hereafter.

On the religious level, we must realize that our envy is a sign that we neither accept nor believe in God's will and justice: it indicates that we are critical of God, even angry at Him. This is close to denial and a great sin. Meanwhile the one whom we envy will not lose Allah's blessings: perchance they may even increase, and certainly he is not sinning. In the Hereafter, as an innocent victim of tyranny, he will benefit.

Each word, each action the envier spends against his victim is a spiritual gift to him that will be deducted from the envier's good deeds and given to the envied one on the Day of judgment. And in this life, certainly, public opinion will be against the tyrant and his condemnation will be a victory for the victim. [The Path of Muhammad]

Food for Thought:
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. All that is necessary for the triumph of the evil is that good men do nothing.