6:42-43 - Difficulties are to make us humble

وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا إِلَىٰ أُمَمٍ مِّن قَبْلِكَ فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بِالْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَضَرَّعُونَ

Verily, We sent (Messengers) to many nations before you (O Muhammad SAW). And We seized them with extreme poverty (or loss in wealth) and loss in health with calamities so that they might believe with humility 

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فَلَوْلَا إِذْ جَاءَهُم بَأْسُنَا تَضَرَّعُوا وَلَٰكِن قَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ

When Our Torment reached them, why then did they not believe with humility? But their hearts became hardened, and Shaitan (Satan) made fair-seeming to them that which they used to do.

(Surah Al-An'am 6:42-43) 

Allah sometimes sends down difficulties, trials and tribulations with the long term goal to make us humble and to remove any form of arrogance from our hearts so that we may remember our place in this world.

But for some of us, if our hearts are so hardened by our state of stubbornness, instead of humbling ourselves, we grow more arrogant and try to justify our evil ways & we feel complacent and have no initiative to take heed to learn from the hardship/trial. This is a sign that in fact we have fallen prey to the manipulative techniques of Shaytan who made our deeds 'Fair-seeming' to us.

May Allah make us amongst those who, when tested with difficulty, turn humble and remove arrogance from our hearts, and may He make us amongst those who stand with integrity, acknowledging our mistakes and not justifying them.

The Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam) said “He who has in his heart an atom’s weight of kibr (arrogance) shall NOT enter Paradise”

“Kibr is to deny the truth (out of self-conceit), and to scorn & look down upon people” (Sahih Muslim, Book #1, Hadith #0164)