Don't even know if I make any sense

“So you see, Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym

Last week I had a discussion with two friends on this article:

http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/reflections/people-leave-each-other-but-do-they-return/

twas very enlightening and a friend brought up what I felt was the most intriguing part of the article that relates to an even bigger scope of things and I quote :

Allah (glorified is He) tells us in a very profound ayah (verse): “Verily with hardship comes ease.” (Qur’an, 94:5). Growing up I think I understood this ayah wrongly. I used to think it meant: after hardship comes ease. In other words, I thought life was made up of good times and bad times. After the bad times, come the good times. I thought this as if life was either all good or all bad. But that is not what the ayah is saying. The ayah is saying WITH hardship comes ease. The ease is at the same timeas 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.

That has always been one of my favourite verses, but I too, had misunderstood it the same way the writer did.  I know the general presumption is that, hardship is God's challenge for us and ease is God's reward but it certainly works the other way as well.

I read the Devil and Ms Prym (good read, I recommend it) before I even read the article and was deeply troubled by the above extract. It seemed like such a horrid and somewhat defeatist idea to believe in but a small part of me did any way. Perhaps everything God has furnished us with, whether it's our wealth, intelligence, status and even the most abstract paraphernalia such as our ideas, thoughts, assumptions, etc, has two faces, but I do believe it is not as straightforward as being good and evil. From the interpretation of the Quranic verse I realised that, my fear arose from the very two faces of my presumption; acceptance that life is a cycle, uncertainty of life's cycle. When hardship falls upon me, I beg God to provide ease, when I'm at ease, I constantly worry about my downturn. This unhealthy situation stems from my lack of understanding.

Relating the quote to the verse, what we make out of everything God has given us defines the face of it and this face changes with time. It will keep on changing until our very last breath but one thing for sure,  it is written for the faithful that everything happens for a good reason.