July 18, 2023

A rainbow arises when rain falls and the sun shines simultaneously. This is one example of the quote “With hardship comes ease”. It is important to take the good with the bad and end up with a beautiful site like a rainbow.

Inna ma’al ‘usri yusra

In Arabic we have a saying which is translated to “With hardship comes ease”. And for years I have interpreted this as: “After hardship comes ease”. Usually, people say this to reassure you and make you realize that after the hard times, the sun shines again and better days will come. But actually, life is more complicated than that. Because in reality the good and bad times happen intertwined. Yasmine Mogahed writes it beautifully in her book Reclaim your heart. She says:

The ease exists at the same time as the hardship. This means that nothing in this life is ever all bad (or all good). In every bad situation we’re in, there is always something to be grateful for. With hardship, Allah also gives us the strength and patience to bear it.

Jasmin Mogahed

Yin and Yang

Is a Chinese philosophical concept. It explains that opposite forces need to exist together in order to have harmony. Yin (black) is receptive and yang (white) is the active principle. They need each other for example; night and day, black and white, etc. It could also stand for positive and negative. This would mean that in order to live in harmony, one must have positive and negative in their life at the same time.

Don’t go looking

Now it is not wise to go looking for the bad at times when things are going well. Sometimes everything in my life is going great; career, private life, health. And during those times I often worry about what will ruin it all. Thus, which hardship will crash this good time. But by looking for hardship you firstly are not fully present during beautiful moments in your life. Secondly, you are also manifesting and inviting that bad energy into your life which ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Image: Unsplash, by Yulia Gadalina