Its effect on the limbs is that you strike, tear, kill, and wound if you are in a position to do so, without any consideration. If the object of your anger flies from you, your own anger turns against you yourself, so you tear your own garments and slap your own face. You may hit your hand on the ground and completely go beyond the overwhelmed drunkard. You may fall down quickly and not be able to run or stand up through the intensity of your anger. It may come upon you like a fainting spell. You may hit animals and smash a bowl to the ground, and act like a madman. You verbally abuse the beast and speak to it, saying, “How long can I endure this from you?” as if you were addressing a rational being. These are the effects of excessive anger on the limbs.
Its effect on the heart is resentment, envy, concealing evil, resolving to divulge secrets, and other ugly things. This is the effect of excessive anger on the heart.
Praiseworthy anger is in moderation. It is the anger which waits for the indication of the intellect and the religion. It arises when it is praised by the shari‘a, and it stops when it is criticized by the shari‘a. It is the middle way which the Messenger of God—may God bless him and grant him peace—described when he said, “The best of affairs is their middle.”
Whoever has insufficient anger must treat himself until his anger becomes stronger. Whoever lets his anger go to excess must treat himself until both of them return to the middle way between the two extremes. That is the Straight Path.
The cure of anger consists of six things: The first is to reflect on the virtues of restraining rancour, and to desire the reward for doing that. The second is to frighten yourself with the punishment of God, saying “The power of God over me is greater than my power over this man. If I carry out my anger against him, then what security will I have against the anger of God on the Day of Rising?” The third is to reflect and make yourself fear the results of anger in this world if you have no fear of the next world. The fourth is to reflect on the ugliness of your form when you are angry. Then you will remember someone else’s form during his anger. Reflect as well on how much you resemble the mad dog when you abandon self-restraint, and how much you resemble the saints (awliya’) when you abandon your anger. The fifth is to reflect on the cause which summons you to revenge. It must be the words of shaytan to you, “This is incapacity and humiliation for you in the eyes of people.” You must reflect since you are more insignificant with God, the angels, and the Prophets. Why then are you concerned with people? The sixth is to know that your anger arises from your amazement at something which is acting in conformity with the will of God. It is almost as if God’s anger with you is greater than your own anger.
This ends the knowledge-cure.
As far as the action-cure is concerned, it is to say when you are angry, “I seek refuge with God from the accursed shaytan.” If you are standing, then sit down. If you are sitting, then lie down, and make the lesser or the full ablution (wudu or ghusl).
The purification of the heart from envy (hasad)
Envy is one of the blameworthy qualities which it is forbidden to have. God Most High said, “Do they then envy people for what God has given them?” (Q 4:54).
As for its reality, you should know that there is only envy for a blessing. When God bestows a blessing on your brother, it can lead to one of two states in you. One is that you hate that blessing and want it to leave him. This state is called envy. The definition of envy is hating blessing and wanting it to depart from the one who has received it. The second state is that you do not want it to leave him and do not dislike the fact that it exists and remains with him, but you desire the like of it for yourself. This is called thinking someone enviable. Envy is anger at the fact that God prefers some of His slaves over others.
There are four levels of envy: The first is to want the blessing to leave him. If that happens, you do not want it to return to him. This is the very limit of malice. The second is to want the blessing to leave him in the same way that you desire a fine house, a beautiful woman, or a lofty, wide sufi lodge (zawiyya) which someone else has obtained and which you want for yourself. Your aim is not to remove that blessing. You hate the absence of the blessing, not that it has been bestowed on someone else. The third is not to desire the blessing itself, but to desire its like for yourself. If you cannot have its like, you want it to leave the person who has it so that the contrast between you will not be apparent. The fourth is to desire its like for yourself. If you do not obtain it, you do not desire that it depart from the person who has it. This last level is excused if it is about this world, and it is recommended if it is about the religion.
As far as the remedy of envy is concerned, you should know that envy is one of the serious sicknesses of the heart. The sickness of the heart can only be treated by knowledge and action. Useful knowledge concerning the sickness of envy is to really recognize that envy is harmful to you, both in your religion and in this world. There is no harm for one who is envied, either in this world or in his religion. Rather, he profits by it both in this world and in his religion. When you recognize this with your inner eye—that you are only an enemy to yourself and a friend to your enemy—then you will inevitably part company with envy.
As for its being harmful to you in the religion, this is because by envy, you are angry about the decree of God Most High and you hate His blessing which He has apportioned to His slaves, and His justice which He establishes in His Kingdom and which is hidden in His wisdom. You reject that. This is an offence which strikes at the core of tawhid and an obstruction in the path of iman. That in itself is enough of a crime against the religion. You act dishonestly toward one of the believers (mu’minun). You abandon his good counsel and you part company with the awliya’ of God and the Prophets since they desire good for the slaves of God. You form a partnership with the Devil (Iblis) and all the enemies of faith (kafirun) since they desire that the believers experience afflictions and they desire that blessings depart. These are malicious things in the heart. They eat up the good actions of the heart like fire consumes firewood, and obliterate them as the night obliterates the day.
As for its being a harm in this world for you, this is because you are pained and punished by your envy. You are always full of grief and sorrow since God does not cease to pour out blessings on your adversaries. Therefore, you are constantly being punished by every blessing you see, and you are pained by every affliction which is turned away from them. You are constantly full of sorrow. Your breast is constricted in the manner you desire for your enemies and which your enemies desire for you. You wanted severe trial for your enemies, but now you immediately come to severe trial and sorrow yourself. Blessing does not leave the envied person because of your envy. Even if you did not believe in the Rising and the Reckoning, it would still show a lack of astuteness on your part. If you are at all intelligent, you should be on your guard against envy because of the pain and evil it contains and its lack of benefit. How much more should it be when you know that envy is the cause of intense punishment in the next world. How astonishing is a man of intellect who exposes himself to the wrath of God without obtaining any profit at all from it. Indeed, it carries harm and pain which he must endure. His world is destroyed without any gain or benefit.
As for its not having any harm for the envied, one either in his religion or this world, it is obvious that blessing will not leave him because of someone else’s envy. God decreed it as good fortune and blessing, so it must last until the time which God decreed for it. There is no way to repel it. Everything is decreed with Him and every term has a book.
The one who is envied profits by it both in his religion and in this world. It is clear that his profit in the religion is that he is wronged by you, especially if you publicize your envy by speech and action, by slander and calumny of him, and by destroying his veil and mentioning his bad qualities. It is a gift which you present to him, i.e. by that, you give him your good deeds and so you will meet him bankrupt on the Day of Rising. You will be deprived of blessing then as you were deprived of blessing in this world. It is as if you wished to remove blessing from him while the blessings which God bestows on you continue as He gives you success in good deeds. You give these to him and increase him with blessing