It is correct to pray insistently, not to insist on meeting demands.
Question:
Would it be ok to insist on meeting our demands in supplications (Duas)? There are some hadiths saying that if you pray to Allah insistently, surely He (SWT) meets your demands. On the other hand, it's common among people that some prayers are not good for us. Now how can we understand which prayer is good? Moreover, how should we understand why have not been our demands met yet? Finally, should we insist on praying or not?
Answer:
Imam Baqir (A): by Allah, if a faithful servant insists on his demand from Allah, indeed he meets it for him. [1] There are common words among people saying that do not insist in your prayer because it may not be good for you. They both are correct, but the thing that causes contrast is negligent in the usage of the term “prayer”. While in fact they mean “do not insist on meeting of demands” not “do not insist on prayers”. Therefore, it is good to insist on prayer not on apparent acceptance (meeting) of demands. By the way, surly every prayer will be met, but not in the way that we can always understand.
Note:
[1] al-Kafi, v.2, p.475: “واللّه لا یُلِحُّ عبدٌ مُؤمِن علَى اللّه عز و جل فی حاجتِهِ إلاّ قضاها لَهُ”