The Green-Eyed Monster

Jealousy is appropriately referred to as ‘the green-eyed monster’ by all right-thinking people. Jealousy is a monster all right, for the way it can sap the thinking of human beings is monstrous indeed. It gives an interesting insight into the working of the human mind to track the source of this jealousy. Jealousy, therefore, presupposes a relationship, personal or general, with the person who is the object of your jealousy.

For instance, some of the people you know may be blessed with the Midas touch, turning everything they touch into gold, be it business ventures, a marital relationship or anything else, whereas you, just living from hand to mouth, find everything you touch turning into lead. You become a prey, perhaps an unwilling one, to the green-eyed monster. You rail and rant against an unjust providence, you move away from God, and ultimately deny Him. All because another has got what you do not have.

Just the reverse is the case of another who is blessed with all the good things of life, but still is not content because he knows someone who is as plentifully blessed as him has an edge over him, and this edge consists in the other man’s fame and popularity. With all that Allah in his bounty has extended to you, fame and popularity have eluded you. And this is when the green-eyed monster takes over. There is no way you can secure an edge over your rival, because the talents that he possesses you can never hope to possess. So what do you do?

Belittle his achievements. By this time the green-eyed monster has bitten you so hard, especially if the other man is a relative, that you do not think twice about attacking him tooth and claw, with all the means at your disposal, fair or foul, though he has done you no harm. If you cannot get at him any other way, at least throw mud at him, call him names, accuse him of nameless crimes.

Jealousy now turns into hate. And if the target of your attack is a writer, you say you hate his writing, when what you really hate is his popularity, his reputation which you could never hope to rival in any way. Criticism is all very well. But destructive criticism is something else again. It stems from deep-rooted hate. And such criticism naturally finds its appropriate berth in the wastes-basket of history till the time comes for it to be consigned to the incinerator, especially when the perpetrators of this vilification choose to remain in anonymity, the refuge of the cowardly.

You are so hopelessly entangled in the toils of the green-eyed monster whose offspring is hate, that you go out of your way to make out your rival to be a fraud, one who pretends to be what he is not. But you forget that Allah is watching your every move, you chose to pit your feeble wits against the justice of the Almighty God.

Finally you get your deserts before your term in this life expires. You end up losing everything you had, even the little reputation that you had enjoyed, The wages of the sin of jealousy has found you. So, if you are a Muslim, beware of jealousy, for it is a despicable sin.