Al-Hasad
Definition
Al-hasad — destructive envy — is the emotion that drove Yusuf's brothers to cast him into a well when he was still a child, and it is one of the most psychologically precise elements of the narrative. Ibn Kathir notes that the brothers' envy was not irrational: Yusuf was genuinely more beloved by their father and genuinely more gifted than they were. The envy was a real response to a real differential. But it was also profoundly destructive — leading to a crime that they would carry for decades and that would shape the entire subsequent history of their family. Al-Ghazali, in the Ihya, identifies hasad as one of the most dangerous spiritual diseases; the story of Yusuf shows what hasad looks like when it is left to act without a conscience to restrain it.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
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