The Meaning of Answering Supplication in the Saying of Allah the Exalted: “And when My servants ask you about Me”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In His saying:[Al-Baqarah 2:186], he asks: Does the intended meaning of the response to supplication mean that He gives the questioner exactly what he asked for?
Answer:
Yes, this is what Allah the Exalted has promised, but He may not give what was asked for, either because the supplication was not made with sincerity, or because he supplicated for something forbidden or disliked. In such cases, his supplication is not answered.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In His saying:
And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me - indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِAnswer:
Yes, this is what Allah the Exalted has promised, but He may not give what was asked for, either because the supplication was not made with sincerity, or because he supplicated for something forbidden or disliked. In such cases, his supplication is not answered.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل في الفرق بين زيارة الموحدين للقبور وزيارة المشركين — islamhouse.com (1:19:44)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.