The Greater The Hardship The Greater The Reward

The greater the hardship, or trial or tribulation the greater the reward. The greater the difficulty the greater the reward. The greater the trial or tribulation or difficulty that you are put through the greater the reward will be for you and for me from Allah (Tabarak wa ta'ala).
If Allah loves a people, He puts them to trial, He tests them and places them in difficulty. Allah the Exalted states in Surah Baqarah :

سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة

وَلَنَبۡلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىۡءٍ۬ مِّنَ ٱلۡخَوۡفِ وَٱلۡجُوعِ وَنَقۡصٍ۬ مِّنَ ٱلۡأَمۡوَٲلِ وَٱلۡأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَٲتِ‌ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ (١٥٥) ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَـٰبَتۡهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ۬ قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيۡهِ رَٲجِعُونَ (١٥٦) أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ عَلَيۡہِمۡ صَلَوَٲتٌ۬ مِّن رَّبِّهِمۡ وَرَحۡمَةٌ۬‌ۖ وَأُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ هُمُ ٱلۡمُهۡتَدُونَ (١٥٧

Surah Al-Baqara

And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast, (155) Who say, when a misfortune striketh them: Lo! we are Allah's and lo! unto Him we are returning. (156) Such are they on whom are blessings from their Lord, and mercy. Such are the rightly guided. (157)

The great reward is in accordance to how great o­nes trial, difficulty or test is. The greater the test and trial, the greater the reward. And everyone must have tests and everyone will have problems & trials and everyone will be put to difficulty, everyone will have moments of grief, moments of sadness moments when things are not as they feel or would like them to be. But the difference is the believer is patient, the believer believes in the decree of Allaah, the believer seeks the reward of Allaah (subhana wa ta'ala) at that time.

The believer praises Allah. The believer will be rewarded in his time of difficulty. The believer has burns and the Kaafir has burns. The believer needs an operation and a Kaafir needs an operation. The believer loses a mother and a Kaafir loses a mother. The believer loses his wife and the Kaafir will lose his wife. Everyone experiences difficulty. Everyone experiences trials and tribulations but the believer because of what Allaah (subhana wa ta'ala) has given him of Imaan and for what he has of patience and being pleased with the decree of Allaah, and seeking a reward from Allaah and seeing the wisdom of Allaah (subhana wa ta'ala) in his difficulty, he will be raised and he will receive great rewards.

Abu Dawud mentions in the Sunnan, related by Ahmad :
It is in the Saheehah (when you hear as-Saheehah it means it is authenticated by Shaikh Naasir ud-Din al-Albaani in his authentic books of narrations – Hadith No. 959) :The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said 

"This my Ummah, is a Ummah that has mercy upon it, 'Marhooma'- a Ummah that has mercy that's been wrapped in Mercies; there is no punishment for this Ummah in the Hereafter except their punishment that they experience in the Dunya --- killing and death and dying, trials and tribulations, earthquakes and the like." And the wording of Abu Dawud is : 'This Ummah reminds of the Ummah, that Allaah has placed His mercy upon. This Ummah will not have any punishment in the Hereafter, this punishment is in this world with fitn, trials, tribulations and punishments and difficulties, and earthquakes and killings, murder, death.. like this.

'As recorded in Buhari and Muslim: The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said :

"Whoever Allah wants good for him, he puts them to test. He puts them through difficulties. Like a diamond or some metal that has to be burnt and then that which is bad from it is removed so that you have that which is the pure diamond or the pure gold or whatever. Put them to tests, trials and difficulties."
As narrated by Tirmidhi and Ibn Maajah : (This is the Hadith that we started with) - The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said : 'The greater reward is with the greater trial or the greater the trial or difficulty of test or hardship is then the greater the reward. And when Allah loves a person He will tests them. So he who will be pleased and then He will be pleased. He who is displeased, then He will be displeased.'(Sahaba's name not clear) 'The people as long as they are in good health, good shape, good condition they are covered. You don't know their true character because they are in good situation, they are in good circumstance. As long as they are in a good circumstances they are covered. But if a trial or difficulty or a hardship comes upon them, then you will see their reality. They will go to their reality. The Mu'min will run to his Imaan, the Mu'min will run to his belief, the believer will run to his belief, his Imaan and the hypocrite will run to his hypocrisy, and the hypocrite will run to his hypocrisy. "Without being shaken, you don't not know what comes to the top and what goes to the bottom. Without being shaken you don't know a man from those who are faking; you won't know women from those who are faking. You won't know those who truly believe from those who don't. Those who make a claim o­n their tongue and is not really in their hearts and from their limbs from those who are willing to die for this matter. This can o­nly be shown by trials, the tribulations and tests and difficulties."

Abu Uwais Abdullaah Ali [Rahimahullah]
Source:AbdurRahman.org