Education and Malice

Malice is a vile tendency and a state of rage that may destroy and terminate since it is hidden in the minds. Islam cares for purifying the mentalities from the vices and evils of malice. The Prophet said, “The faithful believer should not be malicious.”
Envy is the source of malice that ruptures the relations, leads to animosity, and drives people into tremendous evils. Slander and schadenfreude are within the outcomes of malice. Malice may result in other bad consequences, such as mockery and other illegal matters that create dishonor and corrupt the religion. Disorder and depression usually affect the malicious since they live in incessant and unsettled grief, pains, and animosity.

Protection against malice:

- The malicious should consider that the internal animosity takes away from faithfulness and approached to the hypocrites and the deviants.

- The malicious should remark that malice brings about pains and suffering without gaining any profit.

- The malicious are advised of looking upon the courses of the great men of history whom were described of good behavior and virtuous moralities. Imam Ali (a) says, “If you overcome your enemy, you should consider pardoning him as the gratitude for the overcoming.”

People went on supplicating to God against the unknown larcener that thieved some dirhams of Abdullah bin Masud, the grand companion of the Prophet (s). Abdullah answered, “O Allah! If it was an exigent need that drove that man to thieve those dirhams, then I implore thee to bless him. If he thieved due to intending to commit a sin, then I implore thee to make it the last of his sins.”

A wise man said, “If you are told that somebody was reviling at you, you should answer: He must have been unaware of my defects totally, lest he would not utter only these words.”

Adapted from the book: "The Educational System in Islam" by: "Baqir Sharif Al-Qireshi"