If my supplications are not answered, does that mean my prayers are unacceptable?

All that is required to ensure that our prayers are answered is that we should address them to God with sincerity, placing no one as intermediary between Him and us. When a prayer is addressed in such a way, with clear thoughts that God alone can grant our prayers and that He is able to accomplish His purpose, He will certainly answer our prayers. This is a promise to which He has committed Himself, saying in the Qur'an: "Your Lord has said, 'Pray Me and I will answer you'." (the Believers — "Al-Mu'min" 40: 60)

When we say that He will certainly answer our prayers, it does not follow that what we pray for will be immediately fulfilled. When God answers prayers, He may do one of three things: He either brings about what we prayed for without delay, as in the case of prayer for rain. Sometimes rain will fall even before those who pray for it have finished their prayers. Or He may give us something that He knows to be better for us than what we prayed for. Thus, you may pray to God to let you have a certain girl as a wife, but He knows that your temperaments are incompatible and that if you get married, you would not be happy together. He may give you a better wife, with whom it would be easier for you to be happy. Alternatively, God may decide to delay answering your prayer till the Day of Judgment, when He rewards you richly for it.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, tells us that when we see what He gives us for our prayers which He retained with Him, we would wish that He had not answered any of our prayers in this life, but delayed them all to the Day of Judgment. So, whichever option He decides, we are certain to get either what we wish for or something better.

Sometimes, we pray for something we dearly wish, as in the case cited by the reader, i.e. the cure of a physical handicap. Suppose a lame person prays for a cure to his lameness. To start with, he should not merely pray to God to cure it and sit idle. He should look around for a means to cure it. If doctors assure him that there is no way that his lameness will be cured, then he must realize that God is able to cure it if He so wishes, by bringing about some element which is perhaps unknown to us. He should also realize that God may not wish to bring that about and that He has decided to credit us with the reward of such prayer. Therefore, we should remain reassured and we should thank Him for whatever He decides for us, because it is all to our benefit.