Blessings of Prayer — Page 8
Barak a tud Du‘ a 8 In his booklet with the above heading, Sayyid Sahib has the following to say on the subject of the acceptance of prayer: Prayer does not mean that whatever is prayed for will necessarily be granted, for if this be the meaning of acceptance of prayer, two difficulties would arise: First, thousands of prayers are offered with great humility and in extreme anguish, and yet the wish is not granted. This means that the prayer has not been accepted despite the fact that God has promised the acceptance of prayers. The second difficulty is that whatever is going to happen has already been determined; likewise that which is not going to happen has also been deter- mined, and nothing can ever happen contrary to this determination. If the acceptance of prayer was taken to mean that whatever one asks for is granted, then the Divine promise: 6 will obviously not apply to the prayers which have been determined never to be granted. In view of this interpretation, the promise of the acceptance of prayer cannot be taken as a general promise, since only those 6 Pray unto Me; I will answer your prayer. — Al-Mu’min , 40:61 [Publishers]