Abel and Cain –
The two sons of Adam (alayihissalaam)
One was shepherd, the other a farmer
Cain envied his brother Abel as the woman Abel was supposed to marry was better and beautiful than Cain’s,
Cain wanted Abel’s woman, the matter was brought to Adam’s eye, he the Prophet of Allah tried to convince Cain but to no avail, finally it was set that the sacrifice will be made.
Those days, there was no poor to give sacrificial animal or goods to, so the tradition was to put the sacrificial animals or good on the mountain top, the one the fire used to engulfed was considered as accepted one, it was such in this way in their shariah, their way.
It is said that Abel brought the best sacrificial animal and Cain giveth the harvest which was worse.
Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s rejected
Cain became infuriated, he didn’t see his shortcomings in the sacrifice he made, and envied his brother more for this, as it was decreed that whose sacrifice will be accepted the matter will be decided in his favour, without any dubiety.
Seeing all this,
Abel beautifully counselled his brother Cain that Allah swt accept from those who are mutaqqioon, in a way he gave dawah to his envious brother
But Cain was so carried away by envy that he thought of killing his brother and settling the score and this devilish deed was fair seeming in his sight.
He killed his brother Abel, the first murderer of humankind was Cane, it is said that Cain will share the burden of blood shed of innocent human beings till last day, till the end!
If we see the root of this first murder, it came from ENVY.
If we analyse and see things revolving around us and around the world, we will notice envy is the precursor of becoming an enemy to others and the catalyst to bring such reactions in actions which are highly destructive in nature, it has destroyed mankind and is still bringing much devastation, only if we understand !
The point is – some are blessed apparently more than others, it may be a trial for them and for us as well, to be envious is nothing but a way to other evils, Allah swt also test us with people and their blessings.
Like anger, envy is also an emotion, a negative one which strikes the mind and heart, as believers our duty is to repel that very emotion in its very initial stage otherwise the waswasa, the evil whisper will lead to the path of accursed devil, Shaitan.
It should be enough for us that our beloved Prophet Muhammed pbuh has said that
“Beware of envy, for it consumes good deeds just as fire consumes wood or grass.”
Source: Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4903
Grade: Hasan according to Ibn Hajar
May we reflect upon the lessons the two sons of our father Adam a.s has given to us and may we repel envy as it is supposed to be, may we do dawah even to the envious, irrespective of the results, may we understand that being envious will only harm us and will consume all our hard earned good work as the fire consumes the wood.
To get inspired is good, to get envied is getting yourself deprived of all good.