Thank you for your question. Perhaps the way to understand asking for ease is that we ask for ease in those things that can be made easier for us without compromising what is really good for us. That is that we make things unnecessarily difficult for ourselves through numerous mistakes and miscalculations and so we ask Allah to mitigate those difficulties that are out of a lack of wisdom. But test and difficulty are a part of the development of an Islamic personality rooted in faith and those with higher capacities can be tested with more extreme difficulties. That difficulty can be whilst being surrounded by material ease, and it is through those difficulties that a higher form of ease is found. When a person is needless of all except God, they are at ease despite whatever circumstance they find themselves in.
Thank you for your question. While the traditions from the Infallibles (as) encourage a positive attitude towards sickness and all types of trial, that does not mean that they sought those difficulties and didn't seek well being. Rather, Islam is a religion in which all types of well being are encouraged, and there are plenty of hadith supporting supplicating for good health and the prevention and removal of calamities as well as prescriptions for good health and wise maxims to help a person navigate their lives as effectively as possible. A Muslim is successful in this world and the next, attaining well being in both. Even if their situation is difficult, a Muslim should develop their personality such that they are always in a good state even if the world is falling apart around them.
So the encouragement to have a positive attitude is not the same as seeking problems or having a defeatist attitude. Rather, it is to build a Muslim to be able to progress in every state. For more on the philosophy of test see these short podcast episodes:
The believers are purified by hardships and tests to remove their errors and raise their degrees in Paradise. The Hadeeth says: More tests come with more faith كلما زيد في ايمانه زيد في بلائه
More hardships and tests make the believer more remembering Allah and seeking His help and avoid the believer the feeling of pride or arrogance.
There are many Hadeeths that the the believer who struggles in this life for noble cause, will be more rewarded in the hereafter. We read in Quran: Those who face the hardships with patience (Sabr) for the sake of Allah will have countless reward (Sura 39, verse 10).
We also have Hadeeths that the status of Sabr ( patience) from Faith is like the status of the head from the body.
Thank you for your question. The answer is all three although the believer is never in a situation that is not good for them. Sometimes afflictions are a recompense for our sins which we face in this world rather than the next. At other times we face difficulties because of the actions of others, but in these kinds of tests if we are faultless then our patience is rewarded. And at times we face tests from God in order to raise us to levels that we cannot achieve with our own actions. To understand the philosophy of trial according to our scriptural sources please see these short podcasts:
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