This question has to do with my father. Praise be to Allah, he is a kind man, but he does not keep his private matters to himself without disclosing them to everyone. For example, he gets very excited and discloses everything having to do with his business activities, even to people whom that does not concern, and they have no right to know about it. As a result of that, none of his business ventures succeed, because before carrying out his plans there has been a great deal of talk, jealousy and envy, so no business plan is successfully executed. I am not sure whether I have been able to explain the problem clearly, but I would like to ask you to help me by giving me any verse of the Qur’an or hadith from the Sunnah, or any example from the lives of the Companions of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) that has to do with concealing business deals and business plans, and indicates that they should be kept secret and should not be told to others who have nothing to do with the matter.
What is the remedy for someone who discloses his secrets to everyone and suffers harm as a result?
Question: 173526
Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.
Firstly: the individual should conceal his secrets and private matters, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Be discreet, so that you can achieve what you plan to do, for everyone who is blessed is envied.” Narrated by at-Tabarani; although there are some reservations about its isnad, al-Albani (may Allah have mercy on him) classed it as sahih in Sahih al-Jami‘ (no.943).
This indicates that the one who is blessed is envied, and the way to ward off envy is concealment and discretion, not telling everyone.
This is something that has been tried and tested by people of wisdom. So the individual should restrain himself and not tell people about what he is doing, especially if he has not yet achieved what he wanted to achieve, because either someone who wants to compete with him will undercut his prices and be ahead of him in what he wants to achieve, or there will be someone who will envy him for the blessing he has.
So try to gently convince your father of that, and alert him to that which could maintain his well-being and ward off the evil of envy if he is envied. If your father strives to recite supplications (du‘a’s) to ward off the evil of enviers, and does ruqyah for himself by reciting al-Mi‘wadhatayn and the like, that will be good, in sha Allah. However we should note that we do not know of any specific dhikr or ruqyah having to do with this matter.
And Allah knows best.
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