Why our supplication is not answered

Ibraheem Ibn Adham was approached by a group of people. They asked him about the Saying of Allah the Most High:

“Call upon your Lord and He will answer you.” [Ghaafir:60]

They said: “We supplicate to Allah but He does not respond to (our invocations) .

Ibraheem Ibn Adham replied:
 

1. You know Allah but yet you do not obey Him.
2. You recite the Quraan but you do not act upon it.
3. You know about the shaytaan (devil) but you agree with him.
4. You claim that you love the Messenger of Allah but you abandon his sunnah.
5. You claim that you love (to enter) paradise but you do not act for it.
6. You claim that you fear the hell fire but you fail to abstain from disobedience.
7. You say that death is truly (approaching) but you do not prepare for it.
8. You are preoccupied with other people’s faults but you do not analyse your own.
9. You eat the sustenance that Allah provides (you with) but you show no thanks.
10. You bury your dead but you do not contemplate over that.

  
source: Al-Khushoo’ fee As-Salaat, with commentary and checking by Shaykh ‘Ali Ibn Hasan, by Al-Haafidh Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali (d790) page 39. [via email]