Can Ease Exist Alongside Hardship at the Same Time

Yes, of course. Ease and difficulty are not binary. It is not: this is the difficulty, and once it goes away, that will be the ease. The ease may come in a completely different part of your life — not erasing the pain you are experiencing, but opening a door elsewhere that gives you relief or support or comfort in some other dimension.

The Arabic uses yusr — and note that it uses the word ma'a, meaning "with" or "alongside," not "after." Allah did not say "after difficulty comes ease." He said "with difficulty is ease." So the ease will come alongside it, not necessarily after it.

And yusr carries a sense that could suggest something mysterious — a kind of ease you were not expecting. The combination of difficulty and unexpected ease, coming not after the pain but in the middle of it, eventually may even lead to resolution of the original difficulty. But it may also simply coexist, giving you just enough to keep going.