What is the reason our prayers for sustenance are not answered, despite fulfilling all the conditions for supplication, avoiding its impediments, and utilizing the times of responsiveness, and what should we do when despair has driven us to the point of considering unlawful earnings?

A Muslim should not be hasty in expecting an answer to his supplication. The answer is not limited to the fulfillment of what is requested; it may come by averting harm or by storing up reward for the Day of Judgment. The true believer entrusts his affairs to Allah and is content with His decree, for what Allah chooses for him is good, even if a person may dislike something when it is in fact good for him. A believer is more concerned with the rectitude of his heart than with the abundance of his sustenance, for trials occur according to divine wisdom. One of the foundations of happiness and contentment is to look at those who are less fortunate than you in this world, so that you may know that you are indeed well off.