Does the supplication, "O Lord, [grant] such and such, and if You do not, then grant me patience," indicate a lack of trust in the answer?

Certainty in the answer is one of the etiquettes of supplication (du'a), meaning that the supplicant should be in a state deserving of an answer, or that he should supplicate believing that the answer will occur. The supplicant's saying: "O Lord, [grant] such-and-such, and if You do not, then grant me patience," does not negate certainty in the answer. This is because it is a request for Allah to choose the better of two matters for him, for patience in affliction may be better than well-being, as in the story of the black woman. Al-Sa'di differentiated between supplications for religious demands and worldly matters that aid in religion, in which certainty is required, and matters whose benefit is uncertain, where the supplicant leaves the choice to his Lord.