What is the ruling on ceasing efforts to achieve a long-awaited supplication that has been pending for years, and settling for a mere subsistence, and is this considered an abandonment of supplication, and what is the benefit of continuing to strive after such a long time?

We advise the questioner to expel the whispers of Satan. Then, we assure him that if a supplication meets the conditions and is free of impediments, it will undoubtedly be answered, for Allah has promised it, and Allah does not break His promise. It is known that whoever supplicates to his Lord with sincerity and truthfulness will receive one of three outcomes: either his supplication will be granted immediately, or it will be stored for him in the Hereafter, or an equivalent evil will be averted from him.

Therefore, the believer is commanded to supplicate and is promised a response, but he is not the one who chooses the manner of the response. Allah is the One who chooses that, and He knows best what is in the servant's interest, for often a soul clings to things that may not contain good.

The questioner must adorn himself with several things: surrendering the matter to Allah and being content with what He has decreed, continuing to supplicate while being content with Allah's decree, seeking out times when supplications are answered, reflecting on Allah's blessings upon him and looking at others who are afflicted, and knowing that this world is not worth this hardship and that it is a transient abode. He must also expel false thoughts and Satan's whispers and act upon what he has been commanded.