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Knocking on heaven's door

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This is another page from my ninth book called "Dear God". I was inspired to write this book after writing "I am voting for God" on my blog. It continues in that format. Short letters (or prayers) to God. It gives me an opportunity to write more and write to God at different moments in my life.
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Dear God,

I read something online and it has me thinking about what it means, "Prayer is the key to heaven but faith unlocks the door". I do not understand the analogy. Maybe I do not understand the relationship between faith and prayer good enough. Gemini asked me to forget the analogy and in my own understanding, say what role does prayer play, and what role does faith play in that connection? To me, prayer is talking to God and building a relationship between me and God. Faith tells me that God exists and that I can pray to Him. Based on the analogy someone can pray and do everything required to get into heaven without faith. Unless faith is also a requirement and then the analogy becomes faith and prayer and good deeds combined is the key to heaven and then I would understand. So then what unlocks the door? I would say that God's judgement unlocks the door.

Maybe the analogy is trying to say that faith and prayer are the same thing and we cannot have one without the other. And then it clicked to me like a door whose lock was just opened. It is just an analogy that is not meant to be taken literally. It is just saying to me that prayer works with faith. Maybe I can look at it this way - the key to heaven is prayer and the key to prayer is faith. I think I just made my understanding of the analogy worse because what does the unlocking?

How about if faith is the key and it is prayer that unlocks the door? Who decides this? What does Islam say? What does the Quran say? Now this introduces a new variable to mix. The relationship between faith and religion and everything else. Coming to think about it, faith decides a lot. Maybe even everything. Even if I say that God's judgement unlocks the door, that judgement is based on things that are based on our faith. Faith gives the key shape.

Makes me remember my chapter titled "the shape of faith" and adds new meaning to that chapter. The corners of the star from that chapter are like the teeth of the key. Imagine a star shaped key and a star shaped keyhole. This has me thinking about something I have come to learn. There is a surah in the Quran (86) that some say talks about the knocking star and I have seen the first verse translated by some as "By the heavens and the knocking star". This has me thinking about knocking on heaven’s door and I think that would be another good way to look at this. Prayer is like knocking on heaven’s door and faith is the sound that the knocking makes that allows God to hear us.
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