And when the greatest burden upon magic and other forms of harm from people is envy, which is the wishing for the removal of the blessing of the envied:

I have dealt kindly with all people except for the envious; His kindness is rare and difficult to attain.

And how can a person deal kindly with an envious person regarding a blessing, When he is only pleased by its removal?

Allah, the Exalted, said: "And from the evil of an envious one"; meaning the one firmly characterized by envy. He used the indefinite form because not every envious person is blameworthy. The greatest of the envious is the devil, who has no purpose except striving to remove the blessings of worship from a person through negligence.

And when the harm from envy is only what is manifested and acted upon by the effect of the evil eye or otherwise, he said, restricting it: "When he envies"; meaning he envies by the action of his envious eye. As for if the envy does not manifest, then only the envious one is harmed by it due to his distress over the blessing of another. In the implication of the verse is a supplication for what he envies regarding the blessings of both abodes, for the best of people is the one who lives envied and dies envied. And whoever does not pay attention to supplicating for that and is concerned with acquiring what he envies, then Iblis laughs at him when he recites this verse, for he has no virtue to be envied for. And perhaps he expressed it with the tool of affirmation to imply that whoever is firmly characterized by envy and is capable of being described by it, as indicated by the expression of the description, has indeed manifested it, and he is usually unable to fend it off except for whom Allah, the Exalted, protects. And he has known that envy is the cause of magic, which leads to killing, which is the greatest of sins after polytheism. And in polytheism, it is not correct to have the utmost correctness except with polytheism, for envy is the worst of what has emerged from the darkness of non-existence. The evidence for this is its dominance over the previous nations and the warning of the nation which is the best nation brought forth for people, as testified by its guide, blessings and peace be upon him. Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawood al-Tayalisi narrated from Al-Zubair ibn Al-Awwam, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "A disease has crept upon you from the diseases of the nations before you: envy and hatred. And hatred is that which shaves; I do not say it shaves hair, but it shaves religion." And in this regard, there are narrations from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, and Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him. And the greatest of the causes of that which shaves, or all of it, is envy. He knew this from the return of the end of the surah to its beginning, and the connection of its details to its main subject. And whoever is protected from these mentioned things has split the sky of his heart from the sun of knowledge after the darkness of the night of ignorance, so its regions have illuminated with the lights of wisdom, until the description becomes narrow for him regarding the marvels of revelation:

There you will see what fills the eye with delight, And comforts every stranger from his homeland.

So the attachment to anything other than Allah is severed by pure following and distancing from innovation, as He means by saying, "Say, if you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you" [Aali 'Imran: 31]. And the statement of the Jabriyyah is invalidated by the command to seek refuge, claiming that we are like machines with no action of our own, and that we are like stones that do not move except by a mover. For if He were the mover of us without choice, there would be no benefit to the command. And the statement of the Qadariyyah is that we create our actions. And the statement of the philosophers is that when the cause and the caused exist, the effect occurs without needing a divine connection, like fire and fuel. For if that were the case, these actions that are causes would have affected without the seeking of refuge, and the witness contradicts this. The saying of the Ash'ariyyah, the people of the Sunnah and the community, is established that if the cause and the caused exist, the existence of the effect depends on the creation of Allah, the Exalted. If He executes the cause, the effect occurs, and if He does not execute it, it does not exist. And the two surahs indicate that calamities are numerous and He is capable of repelling them. They are both indicative of fear and hope, and that is the essence of servitude. The reason for the revelation of the two seeking refuge surahs, as reported by Al-Wahidi from the commentators, may Allah have mercy on them all, and Al-Baghawi from Ibn Abbas and Aisha, may Allah be pleased with them, is that a boy from the Jews was serving the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. The Jews approached him until he took some hair from the Prophet's head and several teeth from his comb, which they gave to a sorcerer, and he bewitched him with it. This was done by Labid ibn al-A'sam, the Jew. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, fell ill and his hair became disheveled. He felt as if he was coming to women but did not come to them, and he was melting away without knowing what was afflicting him. One day while he was sleeping, two angels came to him. One sat at his head and the other at his feet. The one at his feet said to the one at his head, "What is wrong with the man?" He said, "He has been bewitched." He asked, "Who bewitched him?" He said, "Labid ibn al-A'sam, the Jew." He asked, "With what did he bewitch him?" He said, "With a comb and some hair." He asked, "Where is it?" He said, "In the hollow of a male date palm under a stone in the well of Dhurwan—a well in Banu Zuraiq. The hollow is the peel of the date palm, and the stone is a rock at the bottom of the well that the liquid rests upon." The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, awoke and said to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, "O Aisha! Did you not know that Allah has informed me of my ailment!" Then he sent Ali, Al-Zubair, and Ammar ibn Yasir, may Allah be pleased with them, and they drew out the well as if it were the dregs of henna. Then they removed the stone and brought out the hollow, and in it was the hair from his head and the teeth of his comb, and there was a tied string with eleven knots tied with needles. Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, revealed the two seeking refuge surahs, which are eleven verses: Al-Falaq has five and An-Nas has six. So whenever he recited a verse, a knot was untied, and the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, felt lightness until the last knot was untied, and he stood up as if he had been released from a restraint. And Jibril, may peace and blessings be upon him, would say, "In the name of Allah, I seek refuge for you from everything that harms you and from the envious and the evil eye, and Allah will heal you." They said, "O Messenger of Allah! Should we not take him and kill him?" He said, "As for me, Allah has healed me, and I dislike to stir up evil against the people." In another narration, it is said that he, blessings and peace be upon him, went to the well himself and then returned to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, and said, "By Allah, its water is like the dregs of henna, and its palms are like the heads of devils." I said to him, "O Messenger of Allah! Why did you not bring him out?" He said, "As for me, Allah has healed me, and I disliked to stir up evil against the people." It is gathered that he came to her, blessings and peace be upon him, and did not bring him out. Then he felt some pain and sent for him, and he brought him out, and all the pain was removed. Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, that she said, "The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, was bewitched until it was imagined to him that he had done a thing while he had not done it. One day while he was with me, he called upon Allah and prayed to Him, then he said, "Did you not know, O Aisha, that Allah, the Exalted, has informed me of what I asked Him about?" I said, "What is that, O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "Two angels came to me."

So he mentioned it. Al-Nasa'i narrated in Al-Muharabah from his Sunnahs, and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah, Ahmad ibn Mani', Abd ibn Humayd, and Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili in their Musnads, and al-Baghawi in his Tafsir, all from Zayd ibn Arqam, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: 'There was a man who would enter upon the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and a man from the Jews would cast magic upon the Prophet. He complained about that for several days, then Gabriel, peace be upon him, came to him and said:'

Indeed, a man from the Jews has bewitched you. He tied knots for you in a well such and such, or he said: he threw it in the well of a man from the Ansar. So the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, sent a messenger and they extracted it. It was brought and the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, untied it. Every time he untied a knot, he felt lighter. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, stood up as if he had been released from a binding. He did not mention this to that Jew nor did he ever see him in his face. And in another narration: two angels came to him, seeking refuge for him. One of them sat at his head and the other at his feet. One of them said: Do you know what his pain is? He said: It is as if the one who enters upon him has tied knots for him and thrown them in a well. So he sent a man to him, and in another narration: Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. He took the knots and found that the water had turned yellow. He took the knots and untied them, and he was cured. After that, the man would enter upon the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and he would not mention anything to him nor admonish him about it. This virtue is for the benefit of the two seeking refuge, as Allah granted it to His Messenger, blessings and peace be upon him, and thus He favored it upon the rest of his nation. Abu Dawood and Al-Tirmidhi narrated it and said: it is a good and authentic narration - and Al-Nasa'i either as a chain or as a disconnected narration. Al-Nawawi said: with the authentic chains (p-419) from Abdullah ibn Khabeeb, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Recite 'Say, He is Allah, One' and the two seeking refuge when you enter the evening and when you enter the morning [three times] it will be enough for you against everything." The hadiths regarding the virtue of these three chapters are very numerous. He made the seeking refuge in two chapters as an indication of the desirability of repeating it. They consist of eleven verses as an encouragement to increase its repetition. Surah Al-Falaq, which has five verses, was presented with the previous connections because its conjunction with Surah Al-Ikhlas is more appropriate. He paired it with Surah Al-Nas, which has six verses, as it is more appropriate, so that the pairing is by pairing, and the beginning is with the odd after the chapter of the odd. The essence of this great chapter in its most sublime meaning is seeking refuge in Allah by mentioning His name, the Lord, which necessitates kindness and nurturing by bringing blessings and repelling calamities from the evil of what He created and from magic and envy. As was most evident in the cow, which corresponds to it in refuting the excerpt at the beginning, as it is second to the first just as this is second to the other in mentioning the enemies of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, who envied him for what he was granted of blessings. And in reminding them of the blessings He granted them which they were ungrateful for, and most of that was among the Children of Israel, who were the most envious people of him, blessings and peace be upon him. And one of the greatest things they were led astray by was the magic referred to by His saying, (p-420) "And they followed what the devils recited during the reign of Solomon" [Al-Baqarah: 102] until He said: "And they learned from both of them that by which they cause separation between a man and his wife" [Al-Baqarah: 102] until He said: "And many of the People of the Book wish they could turn you back to disbelief after you have believed, out of envy from themselves" [Al-Baqarah: 109]. And magic was one of the greatest things that affected the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, from their scheming until the two seeking refuge were revealed concerning it. And the magician was one of them. What Allah has concealed of the words has been expressed in the arrangement of its meanings according to the structure of its words, and the words remain in their count, in what they indicate of blessings and support. There are twenty-three words, indicating that he, blessings and peace be upon him, in the twenty-third year of prophethood would be safe from the harm of his envious ones, and that would be at the time of his passing when the religion was complete and the envious would despair of any harm in religion and this world. And the salvation of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, from every distress. If you add to it the pronouns, which are five, it becomes twenty-eight, which corresponds to the year fifteen of the Hijrah, and that was at the time of Umar's, may Allah be pleased with him, firm establishment of authority in the second year of his caliphate by sending out the armies and dispatching them to the king of the Persians and the Romans, and his awe spread in their hearts, and the Persians were weakened by the victory of the Arabs over Rustum, their greatest commander, and the Romans by their victory over Mahaan, their greatest leader. The matter of the hypocrites and the envious diminished, and they despaired (p-420) of the slightest scheming from anyone among the schemers. If you add to it the four words of the Basmala, it becomes thirty-two. If you count from the beginning of prophethood, it corresponds to the year nineteen of the Hijrah, in which was the conquest of Caesarea [of the Romans] from the lands of Sham. With its conquest, the conquest of all the lands of Sham occurred; there remained no town except that it was in the hands of the Muslims. The state of the Romans was removed from it. And in it was also the conquest of Jalula from the lands of Persia, which was a very great conquest that shattered their armies and kings. For this reason, it was called the conquest of conquests. At that time, the greatest disgrace was incurred by the Persians and Romans, who are the most envious of the envious, when they had pride and strength in wealth and men. And if you consider it from the Hijrah, it corresponds to the year of the collapse of the kingdom of the greatest envious, the Caesars, whose kingdom was split by the Book of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. And he sent to his governor, Badhan - who he had appointed over the lands of Yemen - commanding him to invade the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. Allah informed His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that He would kill him, glorified and exalted is He, on a night He named. When that night came, the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, informed the messengers of Badhan of that, so they returned to Badhan and informed him. He said: If he is truthful, the news will come on such a day. The news came on that day confirming his truthfulness, blessings and peace be upon him (p-422) and Badhan and those with him from the sons who were in the lands of Yemen did not remain behind any of them. And he sent a delegation from them to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding that. And Allah and His Messenger, blessings and peace be upon him, took care of them - may Allah be pleased with them, and Allah knows best.