Perfect comfort and rest are in Paradise
Verily, we have created man in toil. (Qur’an 90: 4)
Imam Ahmad was asked, “When is there rest?” He answered, “When you put your foot in Paradise you will find rest.”
There is neither rest nor comfort of a lasting nature until one enters Paradise. This life is full of problems, trials, ordeals, sickness, and worries.
A colleague of mine from Nigeria told me that, when he was a child, his mother would wake him up during the last third of the night to pray. He would answer, “Mother, I want to rest a little.” She would say, “I am only waking you up for your comfort’s sake. O’ my son, when you enter Paradise you will find your repose.”
Masrooq, a scholar from the early generations of Islam, would remain in prostration until sleep overcame him. On one such occasion, a companion said, “Rest a little.” He answered, “It is rest that I am seeking.”
Those who seek ease in this life by abandoning obligatory prayers are only bringing about a precipitated punishment. The disbeliever seeks all his comfort here, which is why he says:
Our Lord! Hasten to us Qittana [i.e. our Record of good and bad deeds so that we see it] before the Day of Reckoning! (Qur’an 38: 16)
Some scholars interpreted Qittana to mean this: “Our share of good and our share of sustenance before the Day of Judgment.” Verily! These [disbelievers] love the present life of this world, and put behind them a heavy Day [that will be hard].
(Qur ‘an 76: 27)
They think not of tomorrow or of the future, and that is why they lose them both. We were created to die. This life is like a volatile liquid, always changing: one day it is ease and richness, the next it is difficulty and poverty.
And this is the end:
Then they are returned to Allah, their Maula [True master (God), the just Lord (to reward them)]. Surely, His is the judgment and He is the Swiftest in taking account. (Qur ‘an 6: 62)