Once, I asked a friend of mine, why don’t most people like smart people? She smile and replied ; “Because people envy smart people” however, her answer wasn’t satisfying enough. So I asked, why would anyone envy someone? She replied “because the person has what they don’t have and they wish to have what the person has” that answer was still not satisfying so I asked “why would anyone envy someone, when everyone has his/her own blessings? Sadly, there was no reply.

My best friend, Aisha Tukar has always had academic success running after her. However, she wasn’t emotionally and socially stable. As a child of 6 years old, I couldn’t understand why it was so, why a gifted and blessed child like Aisha has to go through such a phase. Time passed by and we were no longer in the same school but stayed in touch. I realized that it was jealousy as one of my colleagues told me.

During the past year, I also realized that everyone is blessed in different aspects. Some people are better in other aspect than in some aspects. Aisha was academic guru. However she wasn’t as outspoken as I was then. She was quite shy and people tried to murder her self-confidence. It was just so disheartening and pathetic. Other people around her were much better than her in sporting activities, some in art and design and other aspects.

Therefore, I see no reason why all these people should envy her academic activities when she doesn’t envy their great activities in their own specialties. Surely, for a student, academics are very important. However, it just one aspect of school just a single pencil in a dozen or more.

Just to attain academic success, is it really worth making someone’s life difficult and miserable?

In my enthusiastic and earnest effort to make people realize that there’s no gain in and need for jealousy. I realized that you cannot guide whosoever you wish but surely the almighty can. Hence, the best thing to do if you are envied is to pray for those who envy you to become more sensible realized how blessed they are, how much of the precious time they wasted envying you and appreciate what the almighty has done for them.

By Maryam Mufidah Abdukadir