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It is not necessary for a man to be a saint, or innocent of sin, for his prayers to be granted. It is true that the prayers of noble and virtuous persons are granted more than those of others but it does not means that the prayers of ordinary men and sinners are not heard at all. One, therefore, must not give up making supplications to Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) thinking what would the supplications of a sinner do. Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa), the Beneficent, the Merciful, listens to the prayers of His sinning servants, too, just as He feeds them and clothes them in spite of their misdeeds. Everyone should, therefore, pray. We have seen how Du’a is regular worship. Divine recompense will in any case be his who will engage himself in it.

It will be foolish to lose heart and cease praying if the object for which an earnest prayer is made to Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) is not realized. Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa), in any event, is not bound by our desires. Sometimes, in His judgment, it is in our own interest that our prayers should not be granted at once. Sometimes delay is found by Him to be better for us. But, we, in our ignorance, get disheartened. We are inclined to be hasty and when our prayers are not answered we give up praying as futile.

As a Tradition of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) assures us:

“Du’a never wasted. But the forms of its acceptance vary. Sometimes a person gets what he begs for. Sometimes Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) does not think it best for him that the thing he prays for should be granted. So He does not give it to him but, in its place, a greater favor is bestowed on him or an impending calamity is averted or the prayer is made atonement for his sins. (Since the supplicant does not know it he imagines that his entreaties and supplications have come to nothing). Sometimes the prayer is turned into the harvest of the Hereafter. The object for which a person prays is not granted to him in this life but a greater reward is reserved for him in the life to come as compensation thereof.”

And here is another:

“Some people, many of whose prayers had not been granted in this world, when they will see in the Hereafter the glorious rewards and blessings that had been set aside for them as a recompense for their unfulfilled prayers, will exclaim mournfully how great would it have been had none of their prayers been granted in the world so that they could get the compensation for them all in the Hereafter.”

In fine, everyone who believes in Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) should make it a habit of his to call on Him for his needs with all his heart and with an unshakeable faith in the Omnipotence and the Benevolence of the Almighty and believing positively that the prayer will be granted. He must be sure in his heart that his prayer shall never, never go waste.

The endeavor should be to pray in words richly expressive of Divine Might and Magnificence and of one’s own total helplessness. Many prayers are contained in the Quran and hundreds of them in the Traditions. These prayers, the prayers of the Quran and the Tradition, are by far the best. A selection of forty of these prayers is given at the end of the book.