Salam Alakium; I drank zamzam water last week and one thing I intended was for Allah to make me earn 200 dollars daily with my course in few days; also among things I intended Allah cure my cancer. I intended with faith as I felt and I intended to earn 200.00 dollars daily in a FEW days after that day; it has not happened. Why it didn't happen? Prophet pbuh said drinking zamzam water with intention Allah will make it happen. It is for WHATEVER is intended. So why didn't it work or happen as I asked? Don't tell me Allah answers in 3 ways because the prophet pbuh said zamzam is for WHATEVER IS INTENDED: meaning what ever is intended will happen as asked not it will happen in one of 3 ways. Also I did lots of effort to earn etc didnt just sit back doing no effort to earn. Please answer detailed answer with evidence.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger.

First of all, we ask Allaah, The Almighty, to facilitate for you a speedy recovery from this disease and to both reward you for your suffering from this illness and cure you from it. For more information on the virtues of patience, please refer to Fatwa 83577.

We ask Allaah, The Almighty, to enrich you from His bounty and bless you with what He bestows upon you, as He is the Most Generous, the Most Kind.

You should know that there are two sides to supplication:

The first side: The state of the supplicating person; namely, the poor slave who is in need of his Master, the Rich. So, the person who supplicates should be concerned about this aspect and take into account the conditions and etiquette of supplication, and avoid anything that could prevent his supplication from being answered. For more information on the etiquette of supplication, please refer to Fataawa 83421 and 88296.

The second side: the One Who is supplicated, namely, Allaah, The Almighty, the Lord of the Worlds. This is to believe that He is the All-Knowing and the All-Wise in all His actions concerning His creation. He gives with wisdom and denies with wisdom, and His denying the slave what he asks for may be better for him than having his supplication answered.

Some of the early Muslims said: "O son of Aadam, the Blessing of Allaah to you in what you dislike is greater than His Blessing to you in what you like; Allaah says (what means): {But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allaah Knows, while you know not.}[Quran 2: 216]."

Sufyaan Ath-Thawri said: "His denying is a gift, because He does not deny [anything] out of stinginess or lack; rather, He knows what is best for His believing servant, and so, He chooses to deny it from him for a good reason."

Ibn Al-Qayyim said while commenting on that: "Denying is giving although it is in the form of denying, and it is a grace although it is in the form of calamity, and the calamity of a person is soundness and good health although it is in the form of disaster (misfortune); but out of one's ignorance and injustice, he does not consider blessing, grace and soundness of health except that which he enjoys immediately and that which is in agreement with his disposition. If one is blessed with some knowledge, one considers [Allaah's] denying [of blessings] as grace and [His] affliction as mercy.” [End of quote]

However, dear brother, it is not proper conduct to speak about Allaah in such a manner as expressed in your question “It has not happened. Why it didn't happen!” The answer is that is because Allaah is All-Wise in what He does. A Muslim should assign the blame to himself as he has probably failed to fulfill the conditions for his supplications to be answered. ‘Umar said: "I do not worry whether or not my supplication will be answered; rather, I worry about how the supplication itself is made.”

As regards the Hadeeth which reads: "Zamzam water is for whatever it is drunk for", the scholars have different opinions about its authenticity. Some of them consider it to be Saheeh (sound) and some consider it to be Dha'eef (weak). The preponderant opinion is that it is sound. They also have different views about its meaning. Some of them said that its meaning is general, and that it applies to any good matter that a person supplicates for. However, some of them restricted its meaning and said that Zamzam water being 'for whatever it is drunk for' refers to what the body is fed with, meaning that if you only drink Zamzam water and do not eat anything, it will be sufficient for you as food, and if you drink Zamzam water because of thirst, then your thirst will be quenched.

The more correct opinion is the former one which suggests that the Hadeeth's meaning is general, and this is the opinion chosen by a group of competent researching scholars.

Now, let us look at what some scholars say about some of the conditions that are required when supplicating while drinking Zamzam water. For instance Ibn Al-Arabi said: “...this applies to Zamzam water until the Day of Resurrection, for whoever has a sincere intention and a sound conscience, and does not deny it or drink it for the purpose of testing [Allaah]. Indeed, Allaah is with those who rely on Him and He brings to shame those who [try to] test [Him]."

Moreover, Al-Munaawi said in Faydh Al-Qadeer: “He who drinks Zamzam water with sincerity finds that relief. Some scholars drank it with the intention of achieving some needs, and they achieved them. Al- Hakeem said: The slaves experience the bountiful effects of Zamzam water in accordance with their sincere intentions. This is because when the one who believes in the Oneness of Allaah faces any difficulty, and he turns to his Lord and seeks His help, he finds Him as a Helper, but a person achieves this according to the extent of the sincerity of his intention.” [End of quote]

So you see, such conditions are taken from the texts of Sharee'ah, so it should be of no surprise that the Hadeeth of Zamzam water is bound by other texts, such as the Hadeeth which you referred to in your question which was reported by Ahmad and Al-Haakim, and which was classified by Al-Albaani as Saheeh. Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri related that the Prophet said: “Any Muslim who makes a supplication that does not involve sin or breaking ties with kinship, Allaah gives him one of these three things: either his supplication is answered immediately in this world, or it is kept for him for the Hereafter, or Allaah keeps an evil from him equivalent to the good which he supplicated for." The companions said: "Then we will supplicate Allaah much." The Prophet replied: "Allaah is more."