What is Envy?

By Jabril Muhammad

“An envious person is the worst kind of person because
he will kill you.”

I heard these words spoken by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in the spring of 1956.

What was it about envy that caused these words?I wondered over the depth of these words because many people murder for different reasons.
Can we help the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and/or help ourselves if we are envious?

We first read of envy in the Bible, in the history of Cain and Abel. Abel was divinely favored. Cain became envious of his brother. He came to hate his brother. Out of his envy and hate, he killed his brother.Abel did nothing to earn the envy of Cain. The envy of Cain sprang from his own heart. Cain’s envy gave birth to an unjust hatred of his brother. Abel’s death at the hand of his brother was totally unjustified. And Cain paid dearly for his wicked deed.Joseph’s brothers were envious of him, because God had favored him for His own wise purpose. Korah was the same towards Moses. Saul tried several times to kill David, out of envy. And it is written, in the Bible that the main motive involved in the betrayal of Jesus to his enemies, according to the Bible, was envy.

Envy can be seen as a major factor affecting the destinies of men and nations, in both the scriptures, and in the writings, of many about this world for the past 6,000 years.
Envy has been, and is, a major factor shaping the history of America, and the Black people in her midst. It has been, and still is, a major factor in the relations between Black brothers and sisters in this country. Therefore, envy has been an evil reality that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has had to deal with, from the start of his mission. This is important. This is only an article and not a book. Allah willing you see fully, at this time.

What is envy? What are its roots? Why is it so destructive? It is often said that envy is self-destructive.
Why? How does envy differ from jealousy? How are envy and jealousy manifested?
Dictionaries are of little or no help, in defining the state of mind and feelings that the word envy represents. The significance of this fact lies outside the scope of this article.
However, if you ever probe the study of morality, you will fi nd that the extent to which envy influences vital issues is avoided publicly by most writers, teachers, politicians, scholars in all fi elds, and so on.

Envy is sneaky. It wears many faces or disguises. Have you ever considered that it is all but impossible to depict a person posing by him or her self, in a picture in a manner that tells any viewer that the person is envious? If you were to draw an envious person, how would that person look? Why is it so hard? The reason is due to the fact that envy in a person cannot be detected apart from that person’s relation to the one he (or she) envies.
Envy is an emotion that is directed towards another. Without the other, (a target, a victim) envy cannot happen.

You can show fear, happiness, anger or grief, for example, far more easily than you can show envy, in such as pictures, sculpture, etc.
It is not easy to portray the state of mind of a person who despises another for having a reputation, or for having some skill, which the envier not only lacks (to some degree) but would rejoice at the other’s loss of such assets; though that loss would not mean a gain for the envier.

In Unger’s Bible Dictionary we read this of envy:
“... is that discontented and mortifi ed feeling which arises in the selfi sh heart in view of the superiority of another, nearly tantamount to jealousy (Psa. 37:1; 73:3; Prov. 24:1, 19; Phil. 1:15, etc.).
That malignant passion which sees in another qualities which it covets and hates their possessor (Prov. 27:4; Matt. 27:18; Rom. 1:29, etc.).”
From this alone, it should be clear, that envy is a complex thing. Complex though it is, it can be understood. Let us take our time and take a good look at this thing found in the human heart called envy. As we do, remember, it is part of evil in general, which was permitted by Allah.And what Allah permits, He permits for His own good reason. This is not to say that envy is good in itself. But, this is to say, that there is some good purpose in Allah Himself, that envy serves, as it is part of the whole of evil permitted by Allah.
This tells us that we must take a good look as we ponder at this thing called envy.
A good look, in this sense, is a look corresponding to God’s way of looking; since evil in general and envy in particular could not exist but by Allah’s permission.
Envy becomes possible when two people become capable of mutual comparison. It is how one compares his (or her) self to the other that determines whether or not envy occurs.
Again, envy is a drive or an urge to compare oneself invidiously with another. To compare oneself invidiously is to compare oneself to another in an unlikable, alien, hostile producing way. It is an envy producing comparison. Invidious once had the meaning of envy.

The envier sees the possessions of others; both material and immaterial. The envier would like to see the one he (or she) envies dispossessed or deprived of his or her possessions. Moreover, the envier would also like to see the envied humiliated and/ or hurt for having had those possessions. Yet the envier, wants no envy in return. The envier feels that what you have in some way injures himself (or herself), regardless to how justly you may have gained what you have. You may have spent years, developing that skill, or saving for that house, that you have. It makes no difference to the envier. He, or she, feels pained that you have what you have. The envier feels a lack or feels in some way inferior to you for the fact that you have whatever you have.

Vindictiveness, malice, aggression, unjust anger, self-torment, and selfi shness are elements of the frame of mine and state of emotion of the envious person.
The envier wants both to acquire and see destroyed the possessions of the one that is envied. The envier’s thinking is such that he feels if, for example, the envied one lost, whatever, that he (or she) have, is somehow advanced. That’s insanity!
You cannot appease the envy of the envious person. Even if you show him, or her, greater kindness, you will fi nd that envy is directed to some other possession, or to some good trait or quality you have.

It is an uncreative quality. It has no redeeming features. One writer stated that envy is:
“...insidious and secretive ... burrowing away and undermining. Some of the most eminent people in the world are filled with envy, because others have a little more glory than they. You can see envy in the theatrical and fi lm professions, among artists, writers, politicians— even in the Church.”

Envy is an emotion or a state of mind that hinders the good the envier could do for himself or for others. It is an obstacle that obstructs its owner in the way of self-benefit.
Envy is a disturber of the peace. It could never be among the qualities on which you could build a lasting society. Envy indicates a weakness of the character. Where envy is there is the absence of generosity, charity, and brotherliness.

In fact, it is impossible to feel both envy and kindness towards the same person at the same time. Love, in the fullest and best sense of the term is the opposite of envy. Love and hate can have redeeming features, depending on what is being loved or hated and why. Envy, however, has nothing in it to recommend it under any circumstances.

More next article, Allah willing.

Woe To The Slanderers

By Jabril Muhammad

(This article was originally written on March 29, 2000 and made public in The Final Call.) 

Those critics of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who are motivated by the spirit of Satan, are putting themselves in a terrible position with Allah. They are being shown up as people who wish to make and/or keep Black people as slaves, whom Allah is in the process of freeing.

There were reporters at our Saviours’ Day Convention, who afterwards reported what they did about Minister Farrakhan’s speech, from preconceived ideas that they and/or their editors had already planned. They had already begun to plant in the media what they wanted people to think about the Minister’s motives and words before he made the speech.

They concocted lies and half-truths. They put this deadly brew in a language form that seemed plausible. They tied their poison to the legitimate desires of many Muslims—many of whom they know are new to what Minister Farrakhan teaches; the history and the rightness of his mission. These writers and editors are carrying out the desires of persons who are wiser and more powerful than they are.

What is their real and ultimate objective? Specifically, it is the ruin and murder of Minister Farrakhan and the destruction of what he represents—as well as his followers. 

Such people are operating according to the planning of very wicked persons as part of a vast conspiracy that has been in force for a long time. Regardless to how this sounds, this is easy to prove.

Any of us who backbites, or in any way slanders another, has taken a step towards the destruction of that other, who then becomes a victim.

In the first verse of Surah 104 of the Holy Qur’an, Allah says: “Woe to every slanderer, defamer.”

What is “woe?” It is deep distress or misery, as from grief; wretchedness. Woe is intense, often a state of prolonged wretchedness or misery. This is what Allah has stored up for those who refuse to stop the evil use of their mouths and writing instruments against His servant(s).

Look in Footnotes #6266 and 6267 of the Yusuf Ali translation of the Holy Qur’an of this same Surah. 

Note #6266 reads: “Three vices are here condemned in the strongest terms: (1) scandal-mongering, talking or suggesting evil of men or women by word or innuendo, or behaviour, or mimicry, or sarcasm, or insult; (2) detracting from their character behind their backs, even if the things suggested are true, where the motive is evil; (3) piling up wealth, not for use and service to those who need it, but in miserly hoards, as if such hoards can prolong the miser’s life or give him immortality: miserliness is itself a kind of scandal.”

We ought to use our dictionaries and look up each word that tells us of the various forms of the wicked use of our mouths and pens, which the Almighty has declared war against and is now in the process of destroying.

Footnote #6267 reads: “Hutama: that which smashes or breaks to pieces: an apt description of the three anti-social vices condemned. For scandal-mongering and backbiting make any sort of cohesion or mutual confidence impossible; and the miser’s hoards block up the channels of economic services and charity, and the circulation of good-will among men.”

So you may call yourself “Blackminded.” But if you are a slanderer you are yet an agent of Satan. You cannot deny that slander works against love and unity, without which Black people cannot ever rise from slavery and death.

Let us keep this in mind and never forget it. Minister Farrakhan has said that his teacher taught him that if we repeat a slander three times we become a part of it.

At that point we are in the greatest need of Allah to help us get out of that kind of mess. We can get so deep in the grip of this evil that we cannot get ourselves out of it without help that is greater than its grip.

In connection with the words of God against slander in all forms, is this headline over an article in the March 19, 2000 issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer. It reads: “Farrakhan exhorts student leaders to fight oppression.” It was written by Ms. Sudarsan Raghavan, with help from Annette John-Hall who, according to the bottom of the article, contributed to this article.

They (and their editors) opened with: “In an energetic and sometimes racially charged address yesterday, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan urged young black leaders gathered at Lincoln University to challenge the status quo and ‘out-think’ any whites who deprive them of opportunities.”

Nowhere in this article did these writers back up or show that his speech was “racially charged.” I heard the entire speech. There is nothing Minister Farrakhan said that justified such mischaracterization of his words. So these writers deliberately misrepresented him to their readers who were not able to know better.

The next paragraph reads that Minister Farrakhan stated: “ ‘If you are a student or thinker, a critical thinker, and an analytical thinker, then you can out-think your former masters,’ Farrakhan told a predominantly black audience of about 500 at the Chester County campus.”

The fact is that there were between 3,200 to 3,500 persons in attendance to hear Minister Farrakhan teach!

They continued: “ ‘Farrakhan’s remarks stood in contrast to those he made last month in Chicago, where he embraced a mainstream view of Islam that called for universal brotherhood among races.’ ”

What did he say in this speech that contradicted what he said last month? They never name it. Why not? Because he said nothing that contradicted what he said “in Chicago.”

The article also contains the usual lies about statements that Minister Farrakhan has never made about Jews and others. This is another instance of the continuation of the technique known as “The Big Lie.”

If you will contact Minister Don Muhammad of Boston, Mass., you can get the most detailed history of exactly how this controversy with the Jewish community began between them and Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. You may be surprised.

In deliberately misrepresenting Minister Farrakhan’s clear words—even to lying about the numbers in attendance—these writers of The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that they (and their backers) continue the will of our former slavemasters, who during physical slavery did all they could to prevent us from using our minds for our benefit.

It is traditional in America for the power establishment to work against any one who tries to uplift Black people.

It was the desire of our former slavemasters that the power of their Black slaves to think constructively for themselves be forever destroyed. They did everything that they could think of to eliminate the very root of the power of our enslaved ancestors to reason for themselves; to form rational judgments for their benefit and for their descendants—us.

One of the greatest proofs of the above, that even on a subconscious level, America is unwilling to grant her ex-slaves real justice is her current effort in the repealing of affirmative actions programs throughout this land.

Dr. Martin Luther King admitted that such programs were, in effect, the very least form of reparations to us for the evils America did to us. 

In his book, The Debt, Mr. Randall Robinson quotes a friend of his as saying to him: “It’s the strangest thing … We law professors talk about every imaginable subject, but when the issue of reparations is raised among white professors, many of whom are otherwise liberal, it is met with silence. Clearly, there is a case to be made for this as an unpaid debt. Our claim may not be enforceable in the courts because the federal government has to agree to allow itself to be sued. In fact, this will probably have to come out of the Congress as other American reparations have. Nonetheless, there is a strong case to be made. But, I tell you, the mere raising of the subject produces a deathly silence, not unlike the silence that greeted the book I’m sending you.” 

More about that book and even more important, more about the answers to the questions raised in my previous article and God’s declaration of war on this country next issue, Allah willing.