Thoughts

"(Surely Allah, the Glorified and Grand, has hidden four things in four things.) He has hidden His Answering (your supplications) in Your prayers to Him so then do not consider any part of your prayers to Him as being insignificant as it is possible that within that prayer lies His Answering while you are not aware."

How many times we have called upon Allah (SWT), waiting patiently for an answer? We sit down to recite the extended supplications such as those in Sahifatul Sajjadiyah and the other beautiful pleas contained in Mafaatihul Jinaan thinking that the longer the prayer, the better chance that Allah (SWT) will accept it. We fail to realize that even one short dua of a few lines has as much a chance of being accepted by Allah as the 'longer' duas. The key to acceptance of a dua of any length is to ensure that we have maintained the prerequisites of supplication mentioned in the Quran and Prophetic words of wisdom, and to pray with a pure intention. If the prayer is fulfilled by Allah (SWT), we should realize that that is what was best for us in this life and the next; if it is deferred to the next world, then we need to accept that what we wanted may have been detrimental for our life in this world and more importantly, our status in the next life. We must accept that afterall, Allah (SWT) knows best.