An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 54 of 176

An-Nisa 4:54

أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَىٰ مَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ ۖ فَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَآ ءَالَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَءَاتَيْنَـٰهُم مُّلْكًا عَظِيمًا

“Or do they envy people for what Allāh has given them of His bounty? But We had already given the family of Abraham the Scripture and wisdom[193] and conferred upon them a great kingdom.”

Saheeh International

Essence

To envy people for Allah's bounty is to quarrel with the Giver, who has always given Book, wisdom and kingdom as He wills.

A reflection

A quarrel with the Giver

Am yaḥsudūna al-nāsa ʿalā mā ātāhumu Allāhu min faḍlihi: or do they envy people for what Allah has given them of His bounty?

Notice who the ayah names as the giver. Not luck, not the person's own cleverness. Allah. And notice the word for the gift: faḍl. One lexicon gives the key line. Every gift that the giver was not bound to give is called faḍl. It is grace, not a debt.

Then the voice changes. Fa-qad ātaynā: for We gave. One classical commentator notes the shift into the 'We' of grandeur. It shows, he says, how much the matter concerns Him. Giving is His act, and He signs it in the first person.

That is why envy is not just a private feeling. It is a quarrel with the Giver about how He distributes His own grace. A Companion's saying is preserved in the commentaries: do not be enemies of Allah's blessings. Asked who would do such a thing, he answered: those who envy people for what Allah gave them of His bounty.

This is where the ego shrinks. Envy assumes I have a right to judge His giving. It treats His treasury as if it were mine, and someone else's gift as if it were taken from me. But nothing was taken. It was His, freely given, and still is.

Is it unfair that He gives some more than others? One classical commentator answers a similar question in a nearby passage. The giver of grace may give as He chooses; justice is never breached by grace. And the next words of the ayah remind us that He has always given, generously, across generations.

So when envy stirs, change the question. Do not ask why they got it. Ask whose it was to give. Then ask Him, from the same treasury, for your own share.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.