148 – Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar ibn Kaysān related to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣafwān—grandson of Wahb—told me that Wahb ibn Munabbih said:

“A certain servant devoted himself to Allah in worship for fifty years. Then Allah revealed to him, ‘I have forgiven you.’

The man replied, ‘My Lord, what are You forgiving me when I have never sinned?’

So Allah permitted a single vein in his neck to throb. The pain struck him; he could neither sleep nor perform prayer. Once the vein calmed and the pain subsided, he drifted off to sleep. An angel visited him and asked about his affliction, saying, ‘What did you experience from the throbbing of that vein?’

The angel then said, ‘Your Lord declares: your fifty years of worship are equal only to the settling of that one vein.’”