What is the ruling on supplicating with the words: "O Allah, I do not ask You to avert the decree, but I ask You for gentleness within it," and what is the ruling on one who says: "O Allah, answer my prayer and grant me such-and-such, and after that I will have no excuse with You on the Day of Resurrection"?

The aforementioned supplication is not legislated (not permissible in Islamic law), and the servant does not know that what befell him was due to the influence of that supplication. To assert this is to cast stones into the unseen without proof. The fulfillment of a purpose following an unlegislated supplication does not imply its permissibility. A supplication may be answered due to the dire need of the supplicant, or out of Allah's mercy towards him, or as a decreed fate, or as a trial for him. Even disbelievers' supplications are answered, and they are provided for and granted well-being, even as they invoke their idols.