Mufti Menk – Dealing with Difficulty #30 Prayers Not Answered
AI: Summary ©
The importance of faith and conviction in achieving rewards is discussed, including a desire for victory and a desire for a higher status. Even if a person has good health, they may not always receive what they want, and actions are only a means of achieving their ultimate victory and success. The speaker emphasizes the importance of praying with faith and faith only in the future to achieve rewards, finding faith through actions and actions in return for success, and having hope and faith in Islam.
AI: Summary ©
People wait for the response. They ask him
for something and they want it. And it's
difficult because
we don't know
when we're going to get what we've asked
and we keep asking Allah. He wants you
to have hope in his mercy
and he wants you to have hope in
his response.
He tells you when you call out to
me, I hear it, I respond.
Allah is hearing and Allah responds
in a way he knows is best for
you because he's the most merciful.
So because Allah is merciful, if you're asking
for something harmful,
he would give you something else that he
knows is not harmful.
But because you don't know the future,
he kept something away from you
knowing that that is going to be
destructive for you in whatever
way the destruction would be.
So therefore, out of my love, I know
what you asked me. Trust me. I've given
you something better.
Imagine a little baby
asks you for a gun,
and in turn, you give them a sweet
or you give them
something much more meaningful, a toy.
Because you know if this child gets a
gun they would pull the trigger one day
and cause death or cause harm.
So similarly, when we ask Allah for things,
you need to be convinced
that Allah has heard it and he responds
to it. Allah says,
I respond
the call
of the caller
when he calls me.
So,
this is
what Allah has promised us and he told
us.
Now when you call out to Allah, you've
begged him for something.
He may give you exactly what you want,
when you want and how you want. That
is amazing because that means what he knew
was good for you and what you asked
was exactly the same thing. Here you are.
Subhanallah,
when you get what you've asked for, become
closer to Allah. Many people ask for something.
When they get it, they distance from Allah.
And Allah says that in the Quran, that
when man is
afflicted with something, he calls out to us.
When we alleviate
whatever he was afflicted with,
he carries on on earth as though he
never ever called out to us for anything.
He, like, forgets us. So that's a problem.
So Allah Almighty,
when he gives you what you want, how
you want, when you want, then remember something,
It should be a means of making you
closer to Allah. However,
in a lot of cases,
that may not be. He may give you
what you want, but slightly delayed.
Delayed by how much? He alone knows.
Maybe a few weeks, months, years, or perhaps
in the hereafter.
If it is in the hereafter, it's going
to be far better
than what you asked for.
Thirdly, what you need to know is at
times Allah Almighty
hears
what you've asked for,
and
he wants
to give you something in the hereafter
only
which is better than what you've asked for,
for a reason he knows, because this is
better for you.
It's better for you. If you've asked, for
example,
for a certain amount of money, it can
happen.
And Allah
says, in your case, it's better for me
to give you paradise
for the patience you're going to bear as
a result of us
not giving you whatever you wanted,
and therefore your ultimate victory and success, which
is eternal,
would actually come as a result of that
patience. Go for it. So
what it is here is dealing with this
difficulty is through conviction that Allah does only
what is best for us.
This is the case with marriages, with businesses,
with health, with so much more. Sometimes people
are praying because they don't have good health.
And although in one of the episodes we
did speak about health,
the point here is the supplication.
We pray with hope that we're gonna be
cured
even if
it's going downwards
and we see the deterioration,
the hope
and the prayer,
those 2 together
can earn you eternal
paradise
in the face, meaning you made that
prayer and you had the hope, in the
face
of complete loss of it on the side
of medicine.
So that faith and conviction, yaqeen, with which
you called out to Allah,
In the dying moments, Allah loved it so
much. That is my worshipper. He believes in
me. He actually
calls out to me with such conviction.
For him is paradise because you've arrived at
a level of conviction
that even if you died having had hope,
at least you died hopeful and not hopeless.
At least you died with a smile. You
met Allah Almighty
and he was so pleased with how you
worshipped him. Because remember,
your prayer, your supplication is an act of
worship. Your hope is an act of worship.
Hope and patience are acts of worship that
are only,
given the opportunity to selected
people to engage in.
Only selected people.
So if Allah has chosen you to engage
in some of these acts of worship, they're
actually a privilege, an honor.
Believers at times need to be reminded to
look at it this way.
And that's why our brothers and sisters in
Palestine going through the challenges, it's like Allah
has made them
strong.
Allah has given them that conviction. Allah has
put them on another level of endurance. May
Allah bless them, protect them, grant them goodness
and ease,
and may Allah Almighty grant them victory. Amen.
So my brothers and sisters,
when we ask Allah something, don't for a
moment think he didn't hear, he heard it.
Similarly, when you seek the forgiveness of Allah,
you say, oh Allah, forgive me. He heard
it, and if you were genuine, he forgave
you.
Done.
So shaitan creeps in again and makes you
doubt, no, Allah didn't hear me. No, Allah
did not
forgive me. Don't allow that to happen.
Allah heard you and forgave you. We will
repeat it again, not because we are doubting
that Allah forgave us or not, but rather
because
we want to achieve a higher status in
the eyes of Allah.
We repeat it. We're embarrassed. We committed a
sin. We feel
that we owe it back to Allah
to say, Allah forgive me. Again, Allah, I
did this. Forgive me. Allah, I feel so
bad. Forgive me.
Allah has forgiven you first time, 2nd, 3rd,
4th, your elevate the elevation of status is
happening. So it's good to repeat the istighfar,
the seeking of forgiveness,
but not out of doubt of the mercy
of Allah, rather out of love of Allah.
And out of the embarrassment of a human
being said, you know what? I'm so embarrassed.
I actually sinned against Allah. May Allah forgive
me. So Allah hears you. Don't ever doubt
that. Allah gives you. When it comes to
repentance, it's always given as long as you
were genuine. Genuine meaning
you were truly remorseful,
you regretted it, and inshallah, you have promised
not to repeat that. I I don't want
to do that again, oh, Allah.
Forgive me. I acknowledge what I did.
So
Allah Almighty elevates your status. When you ask
Allah for something, at times he gives you
something way beyond
your imagination
as a result of a dua.
So an example of it is when Allah
Almighty has
not given you the thing you've asked for
but so many other things happened in your
life, it was a direct result of the
fact that you
and called out to Allah and called out
so your children became good and you had
a blessed situation. You had a lovely home.
You had successes in your business. You had
so
much of goodness in the dunya. And perhaps
you'll earn so many different things because you
worshipped Allah in a certain way. So Allah
Almighty
is the greatest. Always call out to him.
Always have hope. Always know that he has
heard your prayer and understand the different ways
he responds. You will never be at a
loss. When you have hope in Allah and
you've called out to him, he will always
give you not just one thing, but many
things in return
for that great act of worship. And like
I said, Allah chooses you to worship him
through sabr
and through
having hope in
Allah. And that's why we should always be
having hope in the mercy of Allah
and we know with conviction
that Allah has heard us and forgiven us.
May Allah grant us the best of this
world and the next.