A man once wrote a letter to his friend requesting him to send an attendant who may be of service to him. The friend sent him a person on a stretcher who was lame and crippled. The man looks at this person lying on the stretcher and thinks to himself that I asked for someone who could serve me, but my friend sent me someone who himself needs to be served. But then he thinks to himself that this is a gift from my friend, thus I will accept this lame and crippled gift from him even though I need to get another servant to see to him.
Now for a moment if we look at our salaah, fasting, zikr, Quraan recitation, etc., which we present to our Allah Ta‘ala, what is the quality of these actions? How much of sincerity and concentration is there in our actions? Thus it is only the grace and favour of our Allah Ta‘ala that He accepts our broken and empty actions. Nevertheless, it is the demand of the love we have for our Allah Ta‘ala that we continuously try to better and to improve the actions we do for our beloved Allah Ta‘ala.