Prayer is a lifelong journey that every believer goes on. It is about calling on God, being with God, and about listening to God. Prayer is a continuous act and the need for it is never ending. Just as breathing is the most fundamental need for physical life, prayer is the touchstone of a person's spiritual life. It provides the opportunity for one to develop a personal relationship with the Creator. In Islam, there are two forms of prayer. One is ritual prayer that must be performed daily at specific times by every adult Muslims. This is called Salat. The other form is supplicatory prayer called Du'a, which can be prayed at any time or place. Du'a is intended to be a private conversation—a two-way dialogue between one and the Lord; not only our turning towards God, but also the response of God. In our du'a, we ask from Allah for forgiveness, wellbeing, protection, and for everything we want and need in our life no matter how big or small.
Throughout the Qur'an, Muslims are encouraged to pray and supplicate to Allah. A person who supplicates to Allah shows that he is in need of Him and weak. Allah has also promised to hear every word and respond to our call.
And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me - indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that you might be [rightly] guided. — Surah Al-Baqarah (2:186)
That being so, as Muslims, we always turn to Allah to make du'a for all matters. Most of the time, the Almighty answers our prayers. Sometimes, we feel He does not respond to our du'a and remains silent. Of course, we all have down times in life. There are times when we have prayed to the Lord asking for His help and mercy every day and night, but we do not seem to get anywhere. Nothing seems so lonely when we cry out for God and we can't even hear an answer. We feel like God is ever so silent, and it has left us feeling confused and saddened. It is days like this when we feel that our faith is being tested as our prayers seem to go unanswered. We are all human with feelings and emotions, and sometimes tend to lose the path of faith that we have built through prayer. In a moment of despair, many of us often wondering what sins we have committed to make Allah desert us in our time of need. I am sure we all have been there at one point or another when we begin to listen to our own doubts that lead us to believe Allah has forsaken us. As a matter of fact, most of us do not realize that all of these bad thoughts in our minds are coming from satan who is going to drag us away from Allah through fear and doubt. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us for doubting His mercy.
As mentioned in the above verse, Allah Almighty is always close to us and listening to our du'a. Allah is all-hearing and all-knowing, nothing is hidden from Him. But why then do our du'a seemingly go unanswered?
My friends, we should not be hasty and impatient in expectation of a response. Sometimes when the answer is delayed or slow in coming, we give up supplicating ourselves to Allah. Du'a is like a seed that is planted in the ground. A good farmer knows that it grows up gradually and takes time for that seed to produce a harvestable crop. Some seeds even will grow very slowly and take longer than others to produce. No crop grows overnight; it requires patience, dedication, and hard work. It is the same for du'a. When we offer a du'a, we must wait patiently. We must continue to pray until the du'a is answered. We should have confidence that Allah will answer our prayers. Don't stop and keep making sincere du'a to Him, for He knows best and we don't know.
Abu Huraira reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:
The supplication of every one of you is granted if he does not grow impatient and says: I supplicated but it was not granted. — Sahih Muslim, 2735a
As a faithful servant of Allah, we should never lose hope when the answer to our du'a has been delayed. It is not that He will not answer our du'a, the reality is there is no such thing as unanswered prayers. There is never a 'no' to our du'a, for Allah is not breaking His promise.
It was narrated from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There is no Muslim who calls upon Allaah with words in which there is no sin or severing of family ties but Allaah will give him one of three things: either He will answer his prayer soon, or He will store it up for him in the Hereafter, or He will remove something bad from him that is equivalent to what he is asking for.” They said, “Then we should make a great amount of du’aa’.” He said, “Allaah is greater.” — Musnad Ahmad, 10749
In the hadith above, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) taught us that supplications are answered in one of three ways:
- We are given what we ask for immediately;
- We do not receive what we ask for, but a greater calamity that was about to befall us is removed from our life instead;
- We do not get what we ask for, but the du'a is saved as a treasure in the hereafter.
Sometimes du'a are answered quickly, but some other times God responds in a different way. Some of us, including me, may have probably du'a that haven't been answered yet. Often we fail to notice that our du'a are actually being answered; just not always in the way or in the timing that we expect. Even though it is not always easy to understand His answer, the point is Allah does answer every du'a; either He will prevent something bad that was going to happen to us or He will store it up for us in the Hereafter. Either way, we will never return empty-handed. No du'a is ever gone to waste. Masha Allah.
So do not lose heart and do not give in to doubt when the answer to our du'a is delayed, there is likewise a reason: it is for our own good or it is not the right time to receive it. Some answers come late. We know God's time is not always the same as ours. His sense of timing is just way, way better. Through this all, we learned how to be still and wait quietly while Allah works things out for us. It taught us to seek the Lord's will instead of our own. We should be ready to accept the result because Allah knows that what we want may not always be good for us, and we may dislike something that may be actually good for us. Allah will not only answer our du'a, He will answer it in a way that is good for us and we just have to believe in His plan. Keep praying and du'a, Allah is with the one who carries tawakkul and sabr in their hearts.
O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient. — Surah Al-Baqarah (2:153)
And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, 'If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.' " — Surah Ibrahim (14:7)
Before asking for more, take out some time to make shukr and say Alhamdulillah sincerely to thank Allah ta'ala. If we look back over our whole life, we realize that Allah has been so good to us. We should be embarrassed at how ungrateful we are for everything He has given us in life. We fail to thank Him for all the countless blessings that we have received without even asking or knowing. How many du'a of ours have been answered in the past, more times than we can count. That is why we should make du'a at all times, not only during times of distress or fear but also during times of joy and excitement. The more we are thankful for what we have, the more He will bless us. Just because Allah has not answered our du'a immediately, it does not mean He is ignoring it. The Lord does care that He is still working in our lives even we don't see or feel it. No matter what it seems like, no matter what the difficulty is; the truth is, the Almighty neither abandoned nor humiliated us. We should refresh and remind ourselves that Allah is always here with us, protecting us through all the struggles we are going through and making sure that we are never alone.
And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein. — Surah Qaf (50:16)
At our core, of course, we are what we have always been: sinners who are not good enough to be loved by God, but remember that Allah is Al-Ghafur and Ar-Raheem. He is the Most Forgiver and the Most Merciful. It is never too late for us to beg forgiveness for any wrongdoing we have committed. If we are sincere in our tawbah (repentance), Allah will forgive us and all of our past sins are turned into good deeds. In fact the mercy of Allah the Almighty is abundant. Let us remember that God's love is greater and deeper than we can ever understand. Allah loves us more than we love ourselves.
Except for those who repent, believe and do righteous work. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful. — Surah Al-Furqan (25:70)
To whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. And Allah, over all things, is Witness. — Surah Al-Buruj (85:9)
When Allah says He is enough as a witness, why do we still doubt Him in what happens in our lives? Only Allah is sovereign and all-powerful. He is in control of all things and nothing can be out of His sight even for a moment. As small human beings, we have no right to question God; it is disrespectful to ask why He does or does not allow certain things to happen. He is the creator of the whole universe, the one who says Kun faya kun (be and it is). Allah's purposes may be hidden from us, yet there is absolutely no doubt that He has better plans for those who believe and love Him.
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Notes: I share this post in part to serve as a reminder to myself and others who see it. Even when we are at the lowest point in our lives, when we feel empty inside; we shouldn't be hopeless with Allah or think that Allah has stopped listening to our prayers. Allah creates a different test for every person and the Lord does not burden a soul beyond its capacity (2:286). Stand in prayer in the night (qiyam al-layl) and recite Qur'an, as well. Hope this is at least a little helpful. May Allah always guide us on the right path. آمين اللهم امين.
