Why Prayers Unanswered?

Ibrahim ibn adham (R.A), a third century scholar, teacher, and a companion of sufyan al-thawri, was asked about the saying of Allah (SWT): “And your Lord say: Call on Me, I will answer your prayer prayer...”(40:60) People complained to him, saying: we supplicate, yet we are not answered.” Ibrahim ibn adham answered them, saying: 

“You know Allah, yet you do not obey Him, You recite Quran, yet you do not act according to it, You know shaitan, yet you have always agreed with him, You proclaim that you love the messenger of Allah (S), yet you abandon his sunnah.

You proclaim your love for paradise, yet you do not act to gain it, You proclaim your fear of hellfire, yet you do not prevent yourselves from sins, You say “Indeed death is true”, yet you have not prepared for it, You engage yourselves with finding faults with others, yet you do not look at your (own) faults,

You eat of that which Allah (SWT) has provided for you, yet you do not thank Him, You bury your dead, yet you do not take a lesson from it.”

(Khushu fi – Salat of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali)