Why Our Supplications Are Not Answered?

by al-Hâfidh Ibn Rajab

Taken from Khushoo fis-Salaat (p.62) of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - rahimahullaah

Ibraheem ibn Adham, may Allaah have Mercy upon him, was a third century scholar, a teacher and a companion of Sufyaan ath-Thawree, and he was asked about the saying of Allaah - The Most High:

“And your Lord says: ‘Call on Me, I will answer your prayer…’” [Soorah Ghaafir, 40:60]

“We supplicate and we are not answered.” So he said to them:

“You know Allaah, Yet you do not obey Him,
You recite the Qur’aan, Yet you do not act according to it,
You know Shaitaan, Yet you have agreed with him,
You proclaim that you love the Messenger of Allaah, Yet you abandon his Sunnah,
You proclaim your love for Paradise, Yet you do not act to gain it,
You proclaim your fear for the Fire, Yet you do not prevent yourselves from sins,
You say: “Indeed death is true”, Yet you have not prepared for it,
You busy yourselves with finding faults with others, Yet you do not look at your own faults,
You eat that which Allaah has provided for you, Yet you do not thank Him,
You bury your dead, Yet you do not take a lesson from it.”