WHY OUR SUPPLICATIONS ARE NOT ANSWERED

IBRAHEEM IBN ADHAM - may Allaah have mercy on him - a third century scholar, a teacher and a companion of Sufyaan ath-Thawree, 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 do not act according to it,
• * You know Shaitaan(Devil), Yet you have agreed with him,
• * You proclaim that you love the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, 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 engage yourselves with finding faults with others, Yet you do not look at your faults,
• * You eat of that which Allah has provided for you, Yet you do not thank Him,
• * You bury your dead, Yet you do not take a lesson from it."