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What Jealousy Means

This question may sound a bit senseless but personally, I had always tried to define this feeling. According to Wikipedia, jealousy typically refers to the thoughts, feelings and behaviour that occur when a person believes that a valued relation is being threatened by a rival. The word basically stems from the French ‘jalousie’ formed from jaloux (jealous) and further from the Low Latin zelosus (full of zeal) and from Greek word for ‘ardour’ and ‘zeal’ (with a root meaning ‘to boil’ ferment or yeast)

I think, jealousy is the feeling of discontent which grows in an individual due to the possessions of others or the desire to possess the qualities of others.

That’s not where the story ends, dear readers! Some people, especially girls, are very conscious about their appearance and they look bitterly towards the girl who is prettier than they are and has beautiful curls, eyes and an exquisite nose. Some girls go as far as being covetous of one’s long nails!

How to deal with jealousy

Now here comes the difficult part! How should we act when we really are at the verge of bursting with jealousy? Many of my friends may think that it is almost impossible to hide your feelings, but here comes your test of patience as jealousy is a feeling which can cause a lot of destruction and if not wisely dealt with can hurt and harm a lot of people as an envious person is always thinking of ways of hurting and humiliating people in front of a huge gathering and even our Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) once said “Avoid envy… it eats up good deeds as fire consumes dry wood.” So here are some sensible ways of dealing with jealousy:

• Start appreciating others! Even if you are feeling low and are feeling like punching the other person, a few words of appreciation wouldn’t do any harm and if possible, a small smile will straighten up all the things!

• Start working hard! Work with all your zest and zeal to reach the standard of the person you are envious of. But that doesn’t mean that you become arrogant and start an unhealthy competition. Now this is the right time to start doing a bit of household chores to please your parents. Believe me; they’ll hug you after that!

• Start thanking Allah for what he has granted you. Never look for things you don’t have, always count your blessings. Remember that there are people in this world who are less privileged than you are. Once you’ll think this way, you automatically will become thankful to Almighty Allah and a feeling of content will soothe your mind.

Now these were some tactics of dealing with jealousy. Believe me! They always work, I can say this from personal experience. I have a small tip for you all and that is … start practising these small things from today and you shall soon become an expert in it. So people! Relax and have a cup of coffee and do think about it! Cheers!