How To Free Oneself Of The Disease Or Effects Of Hasad

The disease of hasad is very dangerous for one's religion and feelings of brotherhood. If a person has such a disease, he should do what he can to remove it. Taataay has suggested the following steps to help remove hasad from one's heart:

(1) The person should remind himself of the evil effects of hasad, both with respect to this life and the Hereafter. When he sees how it hurts his friendship and interaction with others - how he cannot even approach them with a clean heart - he should realise that he is the person who is losing. When he thinks about how displeasing this quality is to Allaah سبحانه و تعالى, this should also move him to try to purify himself from this disease.

(2) If the feeling of hasad comes to him, he should do whatever he can to repel it, whether that implies reading the Qur'aan, performing a prayer and so forth.

(3) At the very least, he should realise that if he does not act upon his hasad and limits it to just a thought in his mind that he cannot fight off, he may still remain sinless. Therefore, he must do whatever he can to keep himself from acting upon his feelings of hasad. Indeed, on the contrary, he should improve his actions toward the one that he has such feelings for. In this way, he might even earn Allaah's pleasure.

(4) In addition, the person should realise that the true bounties are the bounties of the Hereafter and not the bounties of this world. If he concentrates on those and works to achieve those, he will be preoccupied with greater bounties and he will not worry about what others are receiving of this world.

[Commentary on the Forty Hadeeth of Imaam an-Nawawi رحمه الله, vol. 2, pp. 1033-1034]