When not to say 'Amen!'

If your spirit is faithless, your mind is dirtied, you’re cold-hearted in your dealings, your tongue is deceitful or you've a two-faced demeanour, do not expect God to answer your prayers. He won’t, because He knows best. He doesn't care about that unclean hand that you raise towards Him.

Have you ever given a cold shoulder to someone pretending to be praying for you, probably after Jummah or Eid?

I did that many times, because I believe we sometimes take these prayers after religious observances for granted, to mean nothing but insincere formalities. I believe if all our prayers were sincere, God would've answered, and if He had answered to everything we've prayed for so far, we would've been the best of people.

I remember on one occasion after Jummah, some dude that I declared a nemesis was like: “Yalna...” [May God] and before he could add what I knew was going to be a fake wish, I asked him to zip it, because I wasn't going to say Amen. I wasn't trying to be rude, I was just not in the mood to fake an Amen, when I already knew the type of fraud he was.

Let me give you one trick. Sometimes when some of these counterfeits pretend to be praying for you, just pray back and say: ‘YALNALA YALLAH FEYE SA KHOL’ [May your reward be founded on your heart or intention], I bet some of them will never dare to say Amen because they know how insincere their intentions are.