Temptations and Hardship

Temptations and Hardship
We should reflect upon the nature of the human being.
The human being is either in a state of progress or of degeneration.
Either a man is moving towards Allah (swt) or he is moving away from Him. (may Allah (swt) aid us in the former and save us from the latter! ameen!).
Thus, there is no moment for relaxation.
In our lives, there are moments when we sincerely seek the guidance of Allah (swt) and we realize the hardship involved in coming close to him. At other moments we realize that we have closeness to Allah (swt) but we choose to go the lesser route and fall into weaknesses.
The human being is thus constantly bombarded by temptation and hardships.
Temptation is easy to succumb to and hard to resist.
Hardships (developing closeness to Allah (swt)) is difficult to attain and even more difficult to maintain.
But brothers and sisters, when we are in moments of weakness and we seek to engage in the hardships to become closer to Allah (swt) or if we are in moments of strength and are tempted to relax for a moment and enjoy the worldly pleasure, we should ponder over this:
Where do temptations lead one and where does bearing hardships lead one?
The former leads to the hellfire while the latter leads to Jannah.
RasulAllah (saw) said "The hellfire is surrounded by temptations and the paradise is surrounded by hardships."
So when we are stuck in a moment where we desire laxity in the implementation of our religion, we should ask ourselves whether this moment is a moment of succumbing to temptation or of bearing hardship.
If it is temptation, avoid it.
If it is hardship, embrace it. [Abdul Haqq]