Do Not Become Impatient for the Answer to Supplication, Nor Despair of the Mercy of Allah
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy upon him, said:
If there are no barriers preventing the supplication from being answered, then Allah, the Most High, will either give you what you asked for and you will see it with your own eyes—you supplicate to Allah for something and it happens—or He will remove from you a harm greater than it, or He will store it for you with Him. Otherwise, the one who supplicates to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will never be disappointed.
But beware of becoming impatient regarding the answer and saying: “I supplicated and supplicated, yet I was not answered.” For indeed, Satan may cast this into your heart and say: “How many times have you supplicated to Allah, yet your request has still not come?” Then he causes you to despair of the mercy of Allah—we seek refuge with Allah. And this is from the major sins, for despairing of the mercy of Allah is from the major sins.
So do not despair of the mercy of Allah, even if the answer to the supplication is delayed. You do not know where the good lies. Allah, the Most High, did not command you to supplicate except because He wants to answer you, as He said:
﴿ وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ ﴾
“And your Lord said: Invoke Me, I will respond to you.” [Ghāfir: 60]
However, you are being hasty. Wait, and persistently beseech Allah in supplication. Perhaps Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, delays your answer so that you increase in supplication and thereby increase in reward.
📚Sharḥ Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn (3/246)
