First published on: When Our Prayers Are Never Answered


  Summar Hamdy

I remember that scene in The Butterfly Effect movie, when the little girl used to run away to the field escaping her pedophile dad, and she kept praying, but nothing happened? We all had similar moments when we’re in urgent need of answering our prayers, and you keep asking yourself: am I doing it wrong?! Why didn’t God respond?

Our destiny, our challenge!

Yes, sometimes our prayers are never answered, no matter how tough it is, because no one can change his parents, that’s a destiny you can never change no matter how much you pray. Some of the circumstances we go through can’t change also, we have to go through it, it’s part of our story. Most of our challenges begin with family and community, what we want versus what they want. Some of us get a normal childhood, some of us get miserable ones, it can never be the same scenario. At the end, we’re all going to die, imagine if each one of us died warm in bed! This one also sounds so silly, but rather, each got a challenge which we’re here to face. Some of us will die fighting for the right cause, some of us will die for the bad one.  

Can we change our destiny?

Prophet Muhammad -peace & mercy be upon him- said:

Nothing increases one’s lifespan except righteousness and nothing repels the Divine decree except supplication, and a man may be deprived of provision by a sin that he commits.” [Sunan ibn Majah]

So yes, surprisingly we can, we can change our destiny by supplication. The Prophet also said:

Whenever anyone of you invoke Allah for something, he should be firm in his asking, and he should not say: ‘If You wish, give me…’ for none can compel Allah to do something against His Will.” [Sahih al-Bukhari]

Meaning you really don’t have to say “if you wish” because you must believe that Allah (i.e. The Creator of Heavens and Earth) isn’t to be forced to do anything, so, and from your side, you have to insist on what you want and pray for it.

Stop whining!

It’s simple, in the extremely sunny areas in our world, you’ll find people with wider nose opens, so they can breath better, while in extremely cold areas in the world, people have tight ones, so the cold air wouldn’t make them sick. Women are physically weaker than men, yes, but they live longer. And there’s ALWAYS a JUST formula for each one of us, if we believed, opened our minds for the blessings and abilities that we have, and stopped whining!

Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity…” [Quran.com/2/286]

Our prayers are always answered somehow

Prophet Muhammad -PBUH- said:

Whenever a Muslim supplicates Allah, He accepts his supplication or averts any similar kind of trouble from him until he prays for something sinful or something that may break the ties of kinship.”

Upon this someone of the Companions said: “Then we shall supplicate plenty.”

       He replied: “Allah is more plentiful (in responding).” [At- Tirmidhi]

Our prayers are never a waste of time, they’re always doing something good in our lives, but most importantly, never supplicate to anyone except the One Creator Who Has everything, Knows everything, and Owns everything!

In Islam, prayer and action are mates

Prayers won’t move the coffee table for you, you have to get up and move it, but why should I pray if I must move?

It’s like prayers open our eyes to the solution, and there’s ALWAYS a solution near to you. In Quran, God says:

For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease. (5) Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease. (6)” [Quran.com/ 94/5-6].

Are you mad at what you’re going through? Do you think there’s no way out? Or do you have enough faith to pray and see the exit?

Pray, work hard, and stay steady

It’s never about not having enough money to buy a house; a lot of people didn’t have it also at some point of their lives but now they have the most expensive houses in the world. It’s never about how hard the challenge is, it’s about what you’re going to do about it, and whether you’d still have enough faith to pray.

The supplication of the servant is granted in case he does not supplicate for sin or for severing the ties of blood, or he does not become impatient. It was said: Allah’s Messenger, what does: “If he does not grow impatient” imply? He said: That he should say like this: I supplicated and I supplicated but I did not find it being responded. And then he becomes frustrated and abandons supplication…”