15. THE SECRET OF DELAYED RESPONSE TO SUPPLICATIONS
I have been contemplating an awe-inspiring situation; when a believer suffers a calamity or a hardship he starts supplicating and praying devoutly to Allah but still none of his prayers are answered.
Yet as soon as he is about to fall into despair, Allah looks into his heart so that if He finds him content with what Allah decreed for him and still aspiring to receive the grace of Allah, Allah often hastens answering his prayers because faith (man) is rectified at that point and Shaytan is defeated, and the grades of people are made manifest. This meaning is entailed in the verse,
“until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, ‘When is the help of Allah?’”
[al-Baqarah (2):214]
The case of Prophet Ya’qub (alayhias-salani) manifests his endless hope in Allah to bring back his lost child (Yusuf) and when another child of his was taken away from him, he did not despair but maintained his hope in Allah and said,
“Perhaps Allah will bring them to me all together.”
[Yusuf (12):83]
Similar was the hope of Prophet Zakariyyah (‘alayhi as-saldm) who said,
“And Never Have I Been In My Supplication to You My Lord, Unhappy”
[Maryam (19):4]
Beware of falling into despair lest answers to prayers take a long time because Allah is the Sovereign Possessor (al-Malik), the Most Wise (al-Hakim) and Best Planner and the One Who knows the best for your affairs. You need to heed to the fact He wants to test the real person you are, to see your devoted supplications to Him and to reward you for your patience (sabr).
Know that He tests you with delaying the answer of your supplications to combat the whispers (waswasa) of Iblis. Each one of these reasons is enough to increase the level of your hope in Allah’s grace and calls for thankfulness (sbukt) of Allah because He preferred you with trials in order to turn to Him— for it is nothing but affluence when a person becomes in need, and then turns to Allah for His help.“
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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