THE FORTY-FOURTH DISCOURSE On the reason for non-response to the supplication of one who knows Allah

Surely every prayer of the man of spiritual knowledge, to God, the Mighty, the Glorious, is not granted, and every promise made to him is not redeemed so that he may not meet with destruction through over-optimism. Because there is no spiritual knowledge except that he enjoys the nearness of God and his state and station is that he does not wish for anything but God and does not incline to and feel satisfied with anything which is besides Him and is not delighted with any thing that is besides Him. Thus the asking (on the part) of (the devotee) for the acceptance of his prayer and the fulfilment of the promise made to him, is opposed to his path and not in accordance with his state. There are two reasons for this. One is that he may not be overcome by hope and delusion through the subtle planning of God and become unmindful of the requisite amount of good behaviour in his approach to God and thus meet his destruction. The second is that it may amount to associating something with his Lord, the Mighty, the Glorious, which is besides Him, because there is no one in the world absolutely free from sin, except the prophets. It is for this reason that He does not always grant the prayers and fulfil the promises made to the devotee, lest he should ask anything urged by his own nature without any reference to any obedience to the commandments of God in which lies the chance of polytheism; and there are numerous chances of polytheism (shirk) in every state, step and station of a spiritual pilgrim. But when the prayer is in accordance with a commandment, it is a thing which increases a man in his nearness to God like prayer and fasting and other things among the obligatory and supererogatory duties of religion, because in this there is obedience to commandment.