ভূমিকা

In the verse God guarantees not to turn away any supplicant empty-handed and to approve every petition that His servants place before Him. However, in practice we see that although people continually ask God to answer their prayers, most of their supplications remain unfulfilled. In fact, if we compare the volume of requests that are placed before God and the limited number of individuals who have their supplications answered, it appears that a large proportion of supplicants are unsuccessful.

At this point the reactions of the supplicants takes different forms, and everyone’s interpretation of the outcome will depend on his level of insight and understanding and his worldview. The one who knows well the actual concept of supplication and its consequences adopts an enlightened view about what has happened, whereas those who are pessimists and who possess gloomy dispositions view the matter in a different light.

As a result, frequently people whose supplications have apparently not been answered, and whose outlook is superficial, become despondent and pass through the vicissitudes of life alternating between disappointment and despair. They turn their back on faith and even fall into the error of denying God’s omnipotence. The question that arises here is that why do the prayers of supplicants go unanswered despite God’s assurance to the contrary?

Exegetes have attempted to answer this question and in the main, have suggested two possibilities: 1. The acceptance of prayers depends on various conditions, the most important of which is inner purity from, and the absence of, the pollution of excessive sin and defiance of God’s commandments. This is because disobedience of God is the main factor in the rejection of supplications, and it deprives man from attaining God’s abundant and endless grace and bounties. 2.