Why Me
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Why Won't Allah Answer Me? | Why Me?
Despite your desperate pleas, why does it feel like Allah isn't listening to your du'as? The answer is heavy with the wisdoms of the All-Knowing, and touches upon circumstance, intent, and the hidden ways Allah lays out paths for you that you could've never imagined. Sometimes, the ability to pour your heart out into du'a is itself a blessing, and other times, the greatest reward is in patiently waiting for the answer to your prayer. And just as du'a is a means of changing your decree, building that regular communication with God might just be what He has written for you in the first place. And what better could you ask for?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Buried in your dissatisfaction, you often get advised to turn back to Allah. Pray to Him, they say. Talk to Him. He will make a way out for you, they say, but you just have to ask more. But then when you earnestly sit and pour your heart out, why does it feel sometimes like Allah isn't even listening to you? Why isn't your du'a getting answered? Are you even worthy of being heard? Salman al-Farisi narrates something beautiful. He says, that if you have a person who's accustomed to making du'a to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in good times, and then he goes through a hardship and makes a du'a, as his voice travels through the heavens, the angels say amongst themselves, that's a familiar voice. Let's go intercede to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la on his behalf. But on the other hand, if a person is not accustomed to making du'a in good times, and then a hardship visited upon him, and he called out to Allah,
the angels say to themselves, that's not a voice that we usually hear. And so they don't bother to intercede on his behalf. I want you to ask yourself, how often does your voice travel through the heavens? Is it only when your world starts falling apart? Maybe the best thing you can get out of du'a and hardship is a relationship with Allah that isn't dependent upon hardship in the first place. When Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam had his hardest moment, he spoke of his Lord as an intimate friend that he already knew. And with such confidence, he said, Without a doubt, my Lord always hears my du'as. And when Zakariya Alayhi Salaam calls out to his Lord, he says, You've never disappointed me before with my du'a, O my Lord. And you would think hearing that, that Zakariya Alayhi Salaam was a rich man with lots of palaces and children, but he was a carpenter in his nineties, living a very simple life while he and his wife never were able to have children. And with that, he says, you've never let me down, O Allah. But how can that apply to you? You've taken your steps towards Allah. You've made du'a with sincere hopes that it's going to be answered. And then you even make changes in your life. You strive harder, but temptation still comes your way. Your old sins seem to keep resurfacing like test after test. Didn't Allah say that one step towards him will cause him to come to you with speed? Why does it feel like the temptations are coming at you just as fast? And when you continue to try to not be deflated and make reaching out to him a part of your regular routine, sometimes your hardships seem to be endless.
How is it that some people, some people in the world, sometimes your hardships seem to be endless. How is it that some people can still be so optimistic in the face of continuous hardship? Why don't I have that relationship with Allah? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Du'a is worship and you can't only worship Allah when times are tough. And one of the things that was so beautiful about him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was that if you saw him in sujood for a long time crying and making du'a, you wouldn't know if something really bad just happened to him or something really good just happened to him. Because both hardship and ease drove the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to the same position of prostration and prayer. But for the rest of us, sometimes Allah prescribes the bitter medicine of hardship so that perhaps we can wake up and perceive the very purpose of our existence. And just like sin can be a catalyst to come back to Allah, hardship can be a catalyst to fall in love with him. And that relationship with him is the greatest rizq you can get when calling upon him because before the removal of the hardship itself, we can feel this expansion in our chest as faith is renewed and settled within. But I turned to Allah and made du'a to him, shouldn't all of my problems actually go away? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Call upon Allah while you are certain in the answer. And when my servant asks about me, I am close. I respond to the call of the caller when he calls upon me. And that's why Umar radiAllahu anhu said, I don't even worry about the response to my du'as. I just worry about the ability to make du'a because I know that Allah will do his part.
So the greatest outcome has already happened, which is a long overdue conversation between you and Allah. But did you know that the greatest reward is actually then waiting patiently for the response? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, ask Allah for his bounties as Allah loves to be asked. And amongst the best acts of worship is to patiently wait an expectation of relief. This as opposed to the person who the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allah will answer until they say, I prayed and I prayed and he didn't answer me. Don't kill your du'a by losing hope because that du'a from your human heart can literally change the world. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, he said, and there's a subtle wisdom in the scheme. Our most sincere du'as are usually when we're desperately trying to repel something. So nothing is going to remove an evil from you, like a desperate du'a. On the other hand, what usually holds us back from spending our time and money and doing good is that we think we're missing out on something that's better in life, but nothing actually increases our time and sustenance like those good deeds themselves. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying that du'a repels bad decree and good deeds increase good decree, but what's bad and good anyway? One of the beautiful things about du'a is that it's not limited to your request that comes from your limited perceptions of your own life and what you think is best for you. So Allah doesn't answer you in the way that you want, but he always answers you in the way that you need. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that Allah can answer in one of
three ways. He can answer your du'a by quickly fulfilling your supplication, or he can store it for you in the hereafter, or he can remove an equivalent evil to it. So he can respond to your du'a about passing an exam by averting a calamity that could have claimed one of your loved ones. He can respond to your du'a for a job interview by giving you an even better job. He can respond to your du'a for a cure with unimaginable rewards in the next life that would make you wish that he never answered a du'a for you in this dunya. But you can't sincerely call upon Allah to change an outcome unless you're willing to give up your own false sense of control, or even worse, the sins that are blocking your du'as. Ibrahim al-Adham was once asked, what is wrong with us that we make du'a and we receive no answer? And Ibrahim responded. He says, it is because you know Allah and you do not obey him. You know the messenger and you do not follow him. You know the Qur'an and you do not act according to it. You eat from the blessings of Allah and you do not thank him for it. You know paradise and you do not seek it. You know hellfire and you do not flee from it. You know the Shaytan and you do not fight him. Instead, you follow him. You know death and you do not prepare for it. You bury the dead and you do not learn from it. You ignore your faults and you busy yourself with the faults of others. لا تطالب ربك بتأخري مطلبك ولكن طالب نفسك بتأخري أدبك Do not press claims against your Lord because your request has been delayed. Instead, press claims against yourself for lacking in your behavior. If we can lift the barriers to Allah's mercy, then we can open ourselves up to the possibilities of our du'a. Du'a is the strongest means that delivers on your deepest needs, your highest ambitions, and your wildest dreams. Every du'a is either taking you somewhere or taking you away from something.
So when you see the people whose struggles seem tougher than yours and wonder about how they still double down in sincerity, try to emulate that connection and remember that you are calling upon a Lord even more merciful to you than your parents, who knows even better than you what is best for you. Perhaps what you needed to learn this whole time was patience from the one who was patient with your absent voice. It may be that Allah accepted your prayer even though it came after years of ignoring him. So accept his decree with you, even if it's just a few words. Do not ignore him. Do not ignore him. Do not ignore him. Do not ignore him. Do not ignore him. So accept his decree with you, even if it doesn't make sense for years to come. Because if Allah has not heard you call out to him for so long, how can you be so hasty in demanding his response right now? But just know that he gave you a chance to make du'a because he wants to decree in your favor. Anytime he allows your tongue to move in prayer, know that it's because he wants to give you something in response. But du'a has many phases and many steps along the way. The first step is you just learning to talk to Allah. But now you need to learn to trust him. Because on the way to the answer of your du'a, you're going to stumble a few times, all for your own good. Allah has chosen him as our Master.
So let the believers put their trust in Allah.
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