Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 774 [Read full issue]
Greed
Greed is a sickness as is miserliness, and jealousy is worse than miserliness as occurs in the hadith reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him), "Jealousy eats away at good deeds, just as fire eats away at firewood, and giving charity extinguishes sins just as water extinguishes fire." [Ibn Majah]
This is because the miser only stops himself from having good but the envier dislikes the favours of Allah bestowed upon His servants. It is possible that a person give to those lesser than him who would help him achieve his objectives and yet display jealousy to those of the same level as him just as it is possible for him to be miserly without displaying envy to others. Greed is the basis for this. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Beware of greed for it destroyed those that came before you: it commanded them to be miserly and they were, it commanded them to be oppressive and they were and it commanded them to break the ties of kinship and they did." [Abu Dawud]
Compiled From:
"Diseases of the Hearts and their Cures" - Ibn Taymiyyah, pp. 76, 77