even if a long time passes, for He—Glorified is He—loves those who persist in supplication. … So long as the servant persists in supplication and hopes for an answer without ever abandoning hope, he is close to having his supplication answered. Whoever continues knocking at doors will soon have one opened for him.” End quote.1

How could a Muslim not place his trust in his Lord when all affairs are in His hand and are governed by His decree and predestination? Whatever Allah wills comes to pass exactly as He wills, at the time He wills and in the manner He wills—neither more nor less, neither earlier nor later. His decree prevails throughout the heavens and their farthest reaches, on the earth and all that is upon and beneath it, in the seas and the air, and in every part and particle of the universe. He turns and directs them and brings about within them whatever He wills. “Whatever mercy Allah opens up for people, none can withhold; and whatever He withholds, none can release after Him.” 2 His knowledge encompasses all things, He has numbered every single thing, and His mercy and wisdom encompass all things. Creation and command are His; dominion and praise are His; this world and the Hereafter are His; blessings and grace are His; and the finest praise belongs to Him. His power encompasses all things, and His mercy embraces all things. “Whoever is within the heavens and the earth asks Him; every day He is bringing about a matter.” 3 No sin is too great for Him to forgive, and no need for which He is asked is too great for Him to grant. If all the inhabitants of His heavens and His earth—humans and jinn, the living and the dead, the young and the old, the moist and the dry alike—stood together on a single plain and asked Him, and He gave each of them whatever they asked for, that would not diminish what He possesses by even an atom’s weight. “His command, when He wills something, is only to say