Hasad vs Qana’ah

By : Imam Shamsi Ali, President of Nusantara Foundation

Everyone does not want to experience suffering and they will give 100 percent effort to avoid it. Someone could be felt miserable because of disease, poverty, injustice, and other difficulties in life.

However, they have to realize that the most unbearable and terrible suffering is when someone “suffers because seeing other people happy”.  The more successful other people will be the more burdened and suffering.

The behaviour is called hasad. Hasad means destructive jealousy or envy and Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam is also warning us about it: 

واياكم والحسد فان الحسد ياكل الحسنات كما تاكل النار الحطب

“Be careful with hasad because it will erase your kindness like fire burns firewood”,

To prevent it, Islam teaches us to be Qana’ah. Qana’ah is a belief that what happens to us is according to Allah’s plan, the Best Planner of All Affairs.

Qana’ah is not only material things but also the process to get what we want because we can feel Qana’ah when we combine hard work with sincere prayer, and having faith in Allah’s plan. For mu’min, those actions are necessary parts of their successes.

Mu’min always have a positive mindset and strong belief that all of their hard work doing for the sake of Allah and based on His sharia will get the best results. 

However, the results are not always in the form of material or worldly things because mu’min indicator success is not limited by the things that are false and deception. 

Just keep going, straighten up intentions, and always remember that Allah does not waste the efforts of the doer of good.

If you really want to be happy, then replace Hasad with Qana’ah ! (T/ri/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)