Islam Guidance

Verse54

(54) أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ النَّاسَ عَلَى مَا آتَاهُمُ اللّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِ فَقَدْ آتَيْنَآ آلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَآتَيْنَاهُم مُّلْكًا عَظِيمًا

54. " Or, do they (the Jews) envy people for that which Allah has given them of His grace? But indeed We have given to Abraham's children the Book and the Wisdom and We have given them a grand kingdom. "
Commentary:
In the former verses, the words were about the niggardliness of the Jews, and here, in this verse, their envy is dealt with. Envy, of course, is worse than niggardliness, because a miser simply does not remit his own property, but an envious person is inconvenient of the favour of another person, either.
The word /an-nas/ 'people', mentioned in this verse, as Tafsir-us-Safi indicates, refers to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and his progeny. (1)

Thus, the verse says that the Jews envied them for that which Allah had given them out of His Grace. Then, through such judgements, they wished to quench the fire of their envy.
" Or, do they (the Jews) envy people for that which Allah has given them of His grace? ..."
Then the Qur'an says: why do you wonder and envy that the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.), chosen from the family of Bani-Hashim, has been given such a rank? It is in the case that Allah has also given the progeny of Abraham (from whose family are the Jews) the Book and the wisdom and He has bestowed the prophets of the Children of Israel the authority of a great kingdom.
"... But indeed We have given to Abraham's children the Book and the Wisdom and We have given them a grand kingdom."
But, unfortunately you, the degenerate people, lost those worthy spiritual and physical capitals because of your own wickedness and hard-heartedness.
A tradition narrated from Imam Sadiq (a.s.) denotes that he (a.s.) was asked about this verse and he (a.s.) answered: " We are those whom have been jealous of by the enemies ... "
The physical and spiritual damages of envy, irrespective of personal and social ones, are extraordinarily abundant. They have been mentioned in the traditions of the leaders of Islam. Including them, it is narrated from Imam Sadiq (a.s.) who said: " Envy and malevolence are from the darkness of the heart and blind heartedness, which in turn originate from the denial of the bounties of Allah upon human beings. These two, (blind-heartedness and denial of the bounties of Allah) are two wings of disbelief which causes the annihilation of man."

(1) At-Tafsir-us-Safi, vol. 1, p. 425

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