Is there a contradiction between certainty in the answer to prayer and the delay of that answer until the Day of Resurrection? And does the hadith: "No Muslim supplicates with a supplication... except that Allah grants him one of three things..." indicate that the postponement or averting of evil occurs only when the servant has not fulfilled the required conditions for the answer, or is the answer to prayer guaranteed in this world when its conditions are met?

The promise of answering prayers does not contradict the storage of reward in the Hereafter; for a direct answer might be evil for the supplicant. The answer might be by granting what was asked, or by averting a harm, or by storing the reward. The evidence for this is the Almighty’s saying: "And your Lord says, 'Call upon Me; I will respond to you,'" and the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "The prayer of anyone among you is granted as long as he does not pray for a sin or for the severing of ties of kinship," and his saying: "There is no Muslim on earth who supplicates to Allah with a supplication except that Allah grants it to him, or averts from him an evil equivalent to it." The servant does not know the unseen, and what he dislikes may be good for him, and what he loves may be evil for him. If the conditions for answering are met and its impediments are absent, which are: responding to Allah Almighty in His command and prohibition, being truthful in His promise and believing in Him, and not supplicating for a sin or for the severing of ties of kinship, then Allah does not break His promise. For Allah Almighty does nothing but good for His believing servant, so the believer is grateful in prosperity and patient in adversity.