Suppose you are in great need of money and you fiercely pray to God for this money, yet he does not answer your prayers, is this reason to doubt the existence of God? There are people who consider that no answer to your prayers means that there is no God. The first point to be made here is that people misunderstand the purpose of prayer. Prayer’s primary goal is to worship God, not to provide opportunities to ask God for favors. Prayer in Islam is not a means to obtain material gain. Some religious people are like the Jews of Jesus’ (pbuh) time, wanting earthly gain from God. But like Jesus (pbuh), Muslims offers them heavenly gain. Eternal success, not temporal success. So in Islam, prayer is giving, not asking. Giving of yourself, of your time and of your mind, in exchange God gives of himself. It is possible that God gives you earthly gain, but it is a promise that he exchanges your prayers for heavenly gain. And of course, any earthly gain you receive is but a test to see if you will still remember God, just as every loss is. This misunderstanding of the main purpose of prayer as asking for things is the reason a rich person may not pray to God and why poor people come to the places of worship in droves. All should come to worship God.
Secondly, the response or non-response to a prayer cannot disprove the existence and evidence for the First Cause. You can only deduce from your unanswered prayer that the First Cause or God did not answer you, not that he does not exist. The third point is seen when we consider people’s wishes and whether they are always granted. Do you grant your children their every wish? No. Some wishes that they have, you may grant them immediately and without hassle and other wishes, you make them strive for. Some wishes you grant them without them even asking. And others wishes, you do not grant at all. As their parent, you know best whether they can attain their goals themselves, and whether their goal is ridiculous or harmful to them. So you decide which wishes to grant and others which are not be granted. God grants his blessings in the same manner. It is his wisdom, which determines how pertinent a matter is, and whether your prayers are to be fulfilled or not.
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