Nothing is more effective than prayer...
There is a narration about Sheikh Nizam-ud-Din that once he came under severe wrath of a king. The king ordered, ‘Sheikh shall face severe punishment in a week.’
When the day of punishment arrived, Sheikh Nizam-ud-Din was napping using the thigh of his disciple as a pillow. The disciple wept as he thought about the order of the king. His tears fell on Sheikh Nizam-ud-Din, who got up and asked, ‘Why are you crying?’ The disciple submitted that it day was the day of your punishment. Sheikh Nizam-ud-Din replied, ‘Do not worry. I will not be punished. I just saw in a dream that a goring cow came to kill me, but I managed to grasp her both horns and made her fall.’
Incidentally, the king seriously fell ill on the same day and died with the same illness.
These are Godly interventions that humans cannot understand.
(Malfuzat, Vol. 8, p. 37)