Q15
Why are prayers (du'a) unanswered?
The question, at its strongest
"The Quran says, 'Call upon Me; I will respond to you' (40:60). I prayed every night for my mother to recover. I fasted, I gave charity, I begged. She died. Now I'm told that God 'answered' anyway — by storing a reward for me, or by turning away some other harm I'll never see. But if every outcome counts as an answer, then the promise can never fail, and a promise that can never fail tells me nothing. Either God doesn't keep His word, or He doesn't care, or no one was listening."
Why people ask it
Usually because of a loss: a loved one who died, a marriage that ended, a child who did not come. The pain of the loss is joined by the pain of feeling unheard by God.
Short answer
The Quran promises that God responds (ajāba/istajāba), and the Prophet (pbuh) explained that every sincere du'a is answered in one of three ways: what you asked for, a reward stored for the Hereafter, or the turning away of an equal harm. Classical scholars from al-Tabari to al-Razi faced exactly your objection, and many concluded that the promise is of a response, not of granting every request as asked. That does not make the promise empty: it is a promise about God's care, which you can trust or not, but which was never a prediction you could check like a medicine. Your prayers for your mother were not wasted and were not too weak, and her death was not your fault. Grief and even anger can be brought to God; the Quran preserves the prophet Jacob's complaint to God in his grief.
The full answer
9min read
For the heart and mind
Your prayers were not wasted. In the Prophet's (pbuh) teaching, no sincere du'a is lost (Musnad Ahmad 11133, below). What you said to God in those nights was heard and is kept.
It was not your fault. You did not pray too little, or with too little faith, or with the wrong words. People die because every life has an end, and the most beloved people of God — prophets among them — lost those they loved.
You are allowed to be angry, and to say so to God. The prophet Jacob (pbuh), after losing Joseph, said: "I only complain of my suffering and my grief to Allah, and I know from Allah that which you do not know" (12:86). He complained — to God, not about God. Lament is a form of faith.
If the grief is overwhelming, talk to someone. Bereavement counselling helps many people, and grief that does not ease after many months, or that comes with thoughts of not wanting to live, deserves professional care (see the support box on this page).
What the Quran says
"Call upon Me; I will respond to you." "And your Lord says, 'Call upon Me; I will respond to you.' Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell [rendered] contemptible" (40:60). Sura Ghafir is Meccan. The second half links du'a to worship: the people condemned are those too proud to call on God at all, not those whose requests were refused.
"I am near." "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. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided" (2:186). This Medinan verse sits in the middle of the verses on fasting in Ramadan. It uses the same word twice: God responds (ujību), and people should respond to Him (fal-yastajībū).
What "respond" means. The Arabic verb ajāba and its form istajāba mean to answer or respond to a call. Saheeh International translates them as "respond". Classical scholars discussed whether this means granting the request or something wider. Khalil (2011) shows that al-Tabari, al-Razi and al-Qurtubi all raised the problem of "many calling upon God without receiving a response", and that several exegetes explained the "response" (ijāba) as God's reward (thawāb) for the act of calling — given "even though He may not grant the request" (Khalil, p. 96).
What the Prophet (pbuh) taught
Three ways every du'a is answered. Abu Saʿid al-Khudri (ra) reports the Prophet (pbuh) as saying that no Muslim calls on God, without sin or cutting family ties, except that God gives him one of three: "He will quickly fulfill his supplication", "He will store it for him in the Hereafter", or "He will divert an evil from him similar to it". The Companions said: "In that case we will ask for more." He replied: "Allah has even more" (Musnad Ahmad 11133; al-Arnaʾut: isnāduhu jayyid, "its chain is good"; authenticated by al-Hakim; al-Mundhiri: "with good chains"; also in al-Adab al-Mufrad 710 from the same Companion, graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albani — as reported on hadithunlocked.com. Al-Tirmidhi 3573, from ʿUbada ibn al-Samit, is a partial parallel with two outcomes — granting, or turning away a similar harm — graded ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ gharīb by al-Tirmidhi).
What "graded jayyid by al-Arnaʾut" means. Hadith scholars judge each report by its chain of narrators. Ṣaḥīḥ (sound) means every narrator is reliable and the chain is connected; ḥasan (fair, good) means the chain is acceptable but one narrator is slightly less precise. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾut (d. 2016) and Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (d. 1999) were modern hadith scholars who graded large collections. Jayyid ("good") is used for a chain at or near the ṣaḥīḥ level. A ḥasan or jayyid hadith is accepted as evidence; the agreement of several graders and parallel chains strengthens this one.
Don't give up. "The invocation of anyone of you is granted (by Allah) if he does not show impatience (by saying, 'I invoked Allah but my request has not been granted')" (Bukhārī 6340 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound)).
What can block a du'a. The Prophet (pbuh) described "a person who travels widely, his hair disheveled and covered with dust", who "lifts his hand towards the sky (and thus makes the supplication): "O Lord, O Lord," whereas his diet is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, and his clothes are unlawful and his nourishment is unlawful. How can then his supplication be accepted?" (Muslim 1015 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound)). Sins and unlawful earnings are named as obstacles; the hadith of the three outcomes also names sin and cutting family ties.
Du'a and salah. Salah is the ritual prayer, five times a day, with set words and movements. Du'a is calling on God in your own words, at any time, for anything. The saying "du'a is worship" (al-duʿāʾ huwa al-ʿibāda) is widely cited by the exegetes as a hadith (Khalil, p. 96); its collection and grade have not yet been checked. Its point is that calling on God is itself an act of worship, whatever the outcome.
How scholars have understood it
Ibn al-Qayyim: du'a is a cause within God's decree. Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), in al-Dāʾ wa-l-Dawāʾ, calls du'a "the enemy of distress and calamity; it fights them off and then treats them." He describes three cases: when du'a is stronger than the calamity, "it repels it"; when it is weaker, "the calamity overpowers the du'a but its effects are weakened"; when they are equal, "neither one is able to overpower the other" (trans. Umarji). In plain words: God decrees outcomes together with their causes, and du'a is one of those causes — like medicine for illness. Asking does not fight God's decree; it is part of how the decree unfolds.
Ibn ʿAtaʾillah: in what He chooses, when He chooses. Ibn ʿAtaʾillah al-Iskandari (d. 1309), the Egyptian Sufi master, wrote in his Ḥikam: "If, in spite of intense supplication, there is a delay in the timing of the Gift, let that not be the cause for your despair. For He has guaranteed you a response in what He chooses for you, not in what you choose for yourself, and at the time He desires, not the time you desire" (aphorism 6, as quoted by Abu Aaliyah; translator not named).
The Sufi emphasis: nearness, not results. Khalil reports that al-Razi held the purpose of petition to be "proximity" (qurba) to God rather than obtaining the request, and quotes an early sage: the "permission (from God) to make a prayer of petition is better for the servant than the gift" (p. 104). Others listed conditions: Sahl al-Tustari counted "lawful food" among them, and Ibn ʿAtaʾ called presence of heart the "wings of du'a" (pp. 98–99).
The reasoning
The objection at full strength. If granting, storing and averting all count as answers, then no possible outcome counts against the promise. A claim that rules nothing out says nothing about the world. So "God answers every prayer" is empty.
Reply 1: it is a promise of care, not a prediction. "I will look after you" from a parent is not falsified when the parent refuses a request; it would be falsified if the parent stopped caring. The three-outcome hadith says what kind of care God's response takes — it does not claim that you can see which one happened. It is a claim about a relationship, and its truth depends on whether God exists and is good, which is argued for elsewhere (see the pages on God's existence and on suffering).
Reply 2: the promise does rule some things out. It rules out that a sincere prayer is ignored, that it is wasted, and that God is indifferent. It also says what a believer should do: keep asking (Bukhārī 6340 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound)), and leave the form of the answer to God. A promise that shapes how you live is not empty, even if you cannot measure its outcomes.
Reply 3: the tradition did not hide the problem. Al-Tabari, al-Razi and al-Qurtubi all asked why many prayers seem unanswered (Khalil, p. 94). Al-Qurtubi concluded that the divine response "does not require a response in an absolute sense" (p. 97). Taking the promise as "everything you ask, as you ask it" is not how these classical exegetes read it.
Limit: none of these replies will persuade someone who does not already have reasons to trust God. For a grieving person, the honest position is that the promise is to be trusted, not verified.
What science says
Trials of intercessory prayer found no measurable effect. Established (for the trials; their meaning is debated.) In the STEP trial (Benson et al., 2006), 1,802 heart-bypass patients in six US hospitals were randomly assigned. Complications occurred in 52% (315/604) of patients who received prayer and 51% (304/597) of those who did not (relative risk 1.02, 95% CI 0.92–1.15). Patients who were told they would definitely be prayed for had more complications than those who received prayer but were told it was uncertain: 59% (352/601) against 52% (RR 1.14, CI 1.02–1.28). A Cochrane review (Roberts, Ahmed and Davison, 2009) of ten trials with 7,646 patients found "no clear effect of intercessory prayer on death" (RR 1.00) and called the findings "equivocal".
What this means for Muslims. Islamic theology does not describe du'a as a mechanism that works the same way every time, regardless of who prays, for whom and with what wisdom; it describes it as a request to a Person who chooses (Ibn ʿAtaʾillah; Khalil). Trials test whether prayer works like a drug. That they found no drug-like effect is consistent with the classical view, though a skeptic will say it is also consistent with no one listening. Limit: no theological source read here explicitly discusses these trials; this link is the site's own reasoning.
What Muslims do when a prayer seems unanswered
- Keep asking, without saying "I prayed and was not answered" (Bukhārī 6340 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound)).
- Ask for what is good, not only for a fixed outcome — leaving the form to God (Ibn ʿAtaʾillah).
- Look at the obstacles that are in one's control: unlawful income, unresolved wrongs, broken family ties (Muslim 1015 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound); Musnad Ahmad 11133).
- Turn the du'a into presence: tell God honestly what you feel, including grief and anger (12:86).
- Do what can be done alongside the du'a — medical care, practical help — since du'a is one cause among others (Ibn al-Qayyim).
Questions readers ask next
If any outcome counts as an answer, how is that different from no answer at all?
The promise rules out being ignored or wasted, and it tells you what to do — keep asking, trust God's choice. It is not a prediction you can check; it is a claim about God's care that depends on whether God is real and good.
What does istajāba mean?
"To respond" to a call. Classical scholars said the response can be granting, reward or protection, not always the thing asked (Khalil).
Are there things that block du'a?
The hadith names unlawful food, drink and clothing (Muslim 1015 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound)), sin and cutting family ties (Musnad Ahmad 11133), and impatience (Bukhārī 6340 Ṣaḥīḥ (sound)).
How is du'a different from salah?
Salah is the five set daily prayers; du'a is calling on God in your own words, any time.
What does "graded jayyid by al-Arnaʾut" mean?
A modern hadith scholar judged the chain good (isnāduhu jayyid). Several graders and parallel versions support this hadith.
Was it my fault that my prayer wasn't answered?
No. The best of people lost those they loved despite their prayers.
Key verses
وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ٱدْعُونِىٓ أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِى سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ٦٠
Transliteration: waqāla rabbukumu id'ʿūnī astajib lakum inna alladhīna yastakbirūna ʿan ʿibādatī sayadkhulūna jahannama dākhirīna
And your Lord says, "Call upon Me; I will respond to you." Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell [rendered] contemptible.
Translation: Saheeh International
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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. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided. 2:186
Arabic text and transliteration
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِى عَنِّى فَإِنِّى قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لِى وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِى لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ
wa-idhā sa-alaka ʿibādī ʿannī fa-innī qarībun ujību daʿwata l-dāʿi idhā daʿāni falyastajībū lī walyu'minū bī laʿallahum yarshudūna
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He said, "I only complain of my suffering and my grief to Allah, and I know from Allah that which you do not know. 12:86
Arabic text and transliteration
قَالَ إِنَّمَآ أَشْكُوا۟ بَثِّى وَحُزْنِىٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
qāla innamā ashkū bathī waḥuz'nī ilā l-lahi wa-aʿlamu mina l-lahi mā lā taʿlamūna
Sources
- Saheeh International via the site's Tanzil data — 40:60, 2:186, 12:86.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 6340 (sunnah.com), https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6340.
- Sahih Muslim 1015 (via hadithunlocked.com), https://hadithunlocked.com/muslim:1015.
- Musnad Ahmad 11133, with Tirmidhi 3573, al-Adab al-Mufrad 710 and al-Hakim (via hadithunlocked.com), https://hadithunlocked.com/ahmad:11133.
- Atif Khalil, "Is God Obliged to Answer Prayers of Petition (Duʿāʾ)? The Response of Classical Sufis and Qurʾanic Exegetes", Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 37:2 (2011), pp. 93–109, https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Is-God-Obliged-to-Answer-Prayers-of-Petition-The-Response-of-Classical-Sufis-and-Quranic-Exegetes-by-A.-Khalil.pdf.
- Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Dāʾ wa-l-Dawāʾ (The Ailment and Its Cure), chapter on du'a, trans. Osman Umarji, Virtual Mosque, https://www.virtualmosque.com/?p=7349.
- Ibn ʿAtaʾillah, al-Ḥikam, aphorism 6, as quoted by Abu Aaliyah, "Despair Not if Response to Your Du'a is Delayed", MuslimMatters (19 August 2013), https://muslimmatters.org/2013/08/19/despair-not-if-response-to-your-dua-is-delayed/.
- H. Benson, J. A. Dusek, J. B. Sherwood et al., "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients", American Heart Journal 151:4 (2006), pp. 934–942 — abstract, https://mayoclinic.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/study-of-the-therapeutic-effects-of-intercessory-prayer-step-in-c.
- L. Roberts, I. Ahmed and A. Davison, "Intercessory prayer for the alleviation of ill health", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2009, Issue 2), https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD000368_intercessory-prayer-alleviation-ill-health.
- Musnad Aḥmad 11133
- Bukhārī 6340
- Muslim 2735
- Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Dāʾ wa-l-Dawāʾ
- Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh, al-Ḥikam
- Yaqeen, "Modern Pathways"
- Benson et al., American Heart Journal (2006)
- K. Pargament, The Psychology of Religion and Coping