Why is Islam so Difficult?

Compared to the followers of other religions, you will see that the muslims are way more serious. They need to pray five times a day, obligatorily, and that they need to wake up before the sun, everyday. They need to fast for an entire month without eating or drinking anything, they need to cross half of the world to do the pilgrimage at least once in their life. And they need to do total calculations of their income to give a certain amount of that in charity, every year. These are just the basic duties of a muslim.

If you think it like this, a question arises— why is Islam so hard? Other religions do not place so many conditions on your lifestyle. Even if they do, the followers do not take it that seriously. But Islam does it, and declares that to obey it is obligatory. What is the reason? Why does Allah want to make the followers of the true faith suffer more than others?

The answer is, Islam is easy. But not for everyone. Again, it's hard for many people. Although it's not beyond anyone's capacity. That's why Allah says in the Holy Quran,

لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللّٰهُ نَفْسًا اِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ؕ

"Allah does not burden a soul beyond it's capacity." [Surah al Baqarah, 2:286]

Now, this duty may be easy, or it may be hard. But for an ideal muslim, it is not hard. Because Allah also says,

"وَجَاهِدُوْا فِي اللّٰهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهٖ ؕ هُوَ اجْتَبٰىكُمْ وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّيْنِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ ؕ

"Strive Hard for Allah as is His due. He has chosen you and placed no hardship in your religion." [Surah al Hajj 22:78]

In Tafsir Ma'ariful Quran, it says about this verse, "According to Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas R.A. 'hardship' means the hard and strict laws that were upon Bani Isra'il... Others explained that 'Harj' (in the verse) means hardship beyond the capacity of human patience. Islam does not have any such law and rules that are unbearable. Although there are some rules that require you to try hard. However, such kind of trial is deemed a precondition for success to any human success.

In other words, Islam is much easier compared to what was revealed down to the previous nations. And there is no laws in Islam that are beyond our capacity. Rather everything is possible with trial and struggle.

However the person who is a true muslim does not find any of the regulations hard. That is because he has tasted the sweetness of Iman. Rasul SAW says about that —

"Whoever is satisfied with Allah as his Rabb, Islam as his deen, Muhammad SAW as his messenger, then he has tasted the sweetness of faith (Iman)." [Jami' Tirmidhi, 6263, Sahih]

What is the sweetness of Iman? In explanation of this, Imam an Nawabi says, "The scholars have explained that the sweetness of Iman means, finding joy in the prayers and good deeds, to have patience at the time of sorrow to earn the satisfaction of Allah and His messenger SAW, to love it more than anything on dunya, and along with that to have love for Allah, and to turn that love into His obedience, to avoid His prohibitions, and to love His messenger SAW."

[Sharh Sahih Muslim] From this it is clear that the person who will admit into Islam entirely, Allah will pour the sweetness of Iman in his heart. The sweetness of faith is to not feel hardship in performing the rules and regulations of Islam. Rather they are to perform it with joy.

What remains is the matter of worldly life. As if Islam has encompassed in such a way that we are unable to enjoy this world life. First of all, we are not sent into this world to have fun. To elaborate on this matter, the hadith of the Messenger SAW is enough:

"Dunya is a prison for the Mu'min and Jannah for the kuffar." [Sahih Muslim, 2956]

Dunya is an exam hall. If you do good in this exam, you will be happy, or you will be in discomfort. Because on this result depends your eternity. Is this not what is normal?

But whoever is ignorant of this test, he wouldn't realize the gravity of it until he gets the results. The true muslims realize it's importance and therefore they do not delve into all the worldly pleasures. Rather they seek the sweetness of faith to obey all the rules and regulations sent down by Allah to achieve His satisfaction. As, this is the height ot success.

May Allah make our deen easier for us. Ameen