Pain or Progression, that is the Question

So it is a pretty Islamic concept that the one closest to Allah (swt) is the one that is tested the most. This could be for a multitude of reasons... but I think it is simply because (forgive the cliche) - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I came across something pretty funny in my IR readings regarding Kaiser Wilhelms regime in Germany during the resistance against socialist movements...

"There is in Germany a body of opinion... popularized by many of the most prominent literary figures of the last century, to the effect that disease is more than something to be done away with; that it is a fascinating phenomenon and... that it may be one of the distinguishing marks of genius... It can be recalled that Hans Castrop's self-realization on the Magic Mountain comes through contact with disease and death; Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's first awakening comes after a hemorrhage; Novalis asks 'Could disease not be a means of higher synthesis?' and reaches a peculiar conclusion: 'The more agonizing the pain, the higher the pleasure that lurks within it... Illness, along with death, is to be numbered among human pleasures."

There are many things that can be taken out of here... firstly that illness is somehow directly responsible for producing a different kind of human being or allowing some kind of personal growth or progression even in the midst of its supposed deterioration. Perhaps as the body is decomposed a higher element (soul?) is elevated. Very sufi concept... interesting. Secondly, I read somewhere that if exposure to death does not change a person than nothing will... so somehow this awareness of death is the catalyst for allowing a new trait to manifest or allowing growth and development in a human being. This is consistent with the first train of thought. Thirdly, the reference to pain being a pleasure. Another very sufi concept because a mumin is seen to welcome any form of pain as it is seen as a means to reaching a higher state. So, we see a touch of spirituatlity in everything around us, Alhumdulilah.

I always think its funny that these writers think they have touched upon some profound realization, but its something that Islam has always acknowledged. I wonder what is next... will they use intellect and reasoning to figure out conception? Hahahaha, no way... impossible.