Please clarify the seemingly contradictory answers . How are one’s prayers accepted by Allah Most High?

Question Summary

Please clarify the seemingly contradictory answers. How are one’s prayers accepted by Allah Most High?

Question Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and CompassionateAllah Most High says in the Qur’an, “Your Lord has proclaimed, “Call upon Me, I will respond to you. Surely those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell, fully humbled.” [Qur’an; 40:60]

Also, “When My servants ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about Me: I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me. So let them respond ˹with obedience˺ to Me and believe in Me, perhaps they will be guided ˹to the Right Way˺.

A Promise from Allah Most High

The above verses show that the supplication of the one who calls upon Allah Most High is certainly accepted. However, this must be understood in the context of the following two questions:

(1) Does this apply to everyone who supplicates?

In the Prophetic narrations, we see exceptions to the above verses. Some of these exceptions are as follows:

– supplicating with a heedless heart
– supplicating for sinful things
– supplicating and then giving up (due to not seeing the response)
– supplicating whilst one’s clothing, food, drink, nourishment are from prohibited (Haram) sources
– supplicating while in the state of disbelief

So it is clear that the verses of promised acceptance are not absolute.

(2) What does it mean that one’s supplication is answered?

Furthermore, Allah’s acceptance of one’s supplication does not necessitate that the person is given exactly what they asked for or given what they asked for immediately.

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “No Muslim makes a supplication, not containing sin or the cutting of family ties, except that Allah will give them one of three: Either what he supplicated for will be hastened for him, or it (i.e., the reward of his supplication) will be saved for him in the Hereafter, or Allah will avert from him an evil similar to what he supplicated for.” The Companions said, “In that case, we will make a lot (of supplications). He (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Allah has much to give.” [Ahmad]

Even though the first thing that comes to one’s mind when they hear Allah’s promise of acceptance is the first type mentioned in the above narration, all three are understood as Allah’s accepting of one’s supplication.

Clarification

Thus the statement in the first link you attached –

” Allah accepts the prayer of a person who prays to Him after performing two ‘Rakaat ‘ of Salaat. Allah grants him what he prays for, sometimes immediately and sometimes (in his own interest) later.”

and that of the second link –

“No matter how much we ask Allah, and no matter how well, know that we may not always get what we want, in the matter and timing that we long for. Allah is All-Seeing and All-Knowing, and we are but finite beings. I pray that Allah grants you acceptance, contentment, and gratitude for His Decree.”

They are not contradictory at all.

The first applies to Allah accepting the supplication (i.e., none of the factors that would prevent a person’s supplication are found) either immediately, later, or by saving the Hereafter’s reward averting from the person an evil.

The second is true in light of the same reasons derived from the aforementioned narration.

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and some texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.