Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

al-Raḥmān
55: 29)—everyday He is
involved in giving you something. He is engaged in providing me, and providing
me, and providing me, and providing you.

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So when someone becomes wretched or miserable or in a bad mood about
duʿā’
maybe they haven’t understood what Allah has been doing for them all
along.
I’ll make it easy for you to understand. Your mother loves you. Those of you
that are fortunate enough that your mother is alive, and you are fortunate enough
that she lives in your country or you get to visit her. When you go visit your
mother after a long time—and she is getting old now—she makes you food, she
puts it on the table and she gives you a hug. You start eating the food and you
say, ‘Mum where’s the salt? Come on! Don’t you know!? I need some extra salt.
Where’s the ketchup? You didn’t even get the ketchup!? And I thought you were
going to get me Pepsi, you only bought 7-Up?’ What kind of miserable person
are you that your mother does all of this for you and you can only think about
what’s missing? You can think about what she didn’t do. That shows you have
no appreciation for what your mother does for you, and what she has been doing
for you, and the love and care she put into providing for you.
That’s just you and your mother. We’re talking about Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
).
We’re talking about someone whose love cannot be measured, and it can’t be
quantified. People ask the question, ‘How come Allah doesn’t listen to my
duʿā’
?’ That is a very offensive question. To Allah it is a very offensive
question. How in the world do you say that He doesn’t listen? Allah (
ʿazza wa-
jall
), He doesn’t just say He listens, He responds to every 
duʿā’
. But then how
come He didn’t respond in the way I wanted and the way you wanted. That’s the
real question I’m going to try to answer.
I want to make sure we understand in this reminder what 
duʿā’
is not? 
Duʿā’
is not placing an order at a restaurant. 
Duʿā’
is not placing an order for a
product. When you place an order, you pay something and you get what you
expected. You place an order for French fries; you’re not supposed to get a
burger. You’re supposed to get French fries. When you place an order for a
laptop, you’re not supposed to get a phone in the mail. You get what you
ordered, and when you order something you obviously pay for it. You paid for it,
so you’re expecting what you paid for. When you and I make 
duʿā’
, we pay
nothing. We pay 
nothing
. When you pay nothing, then you have no expectations,
you have no right to complain about what you get. You don’t get to say, ‘Hey!
Wait, I asked for a hundred on my exam. I made 
duʿā’
last night. I still got a
forty. What is this Allah? I placed the right order!’ You and I don’t get to do
that. Allah is not here to serve you and me as customers.
We’re used to customer service in this world. We are used to it so much that

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we think the way we are going to deal with Allah, is the same. Some of the
young people today; unfortunately, their relationship with their parents has
become like their parents are supposed to provide them customer service. ‘Mum,
I asked you to buy me Grand Theft Auto! How come you didn’t get it yet?’, ‘I
told you I’m going to do my homework!’ Like your homework is payment or
something, right? Because we feel so entitled all the time, we bring this entitled
attitude when we turn to Allah and we make 
duʿā’
to Him. ‘