148 – Al-Walīd ibn Shujāʿ and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā narrated to us; they said: Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us, from al-Masʿūdī, from ʿAwn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said:

“Two brothers from the Children of Israel once spoke together. One of them asked his companion, ‘Which deed of yours do you find most alarming?’

He replied, ‘Nothing frightens me more than the time I walked between two heaps of wheat. I plucked a single ear from one of them, then felt remorse and wanted to put it back in the very heap from which I had taken it. But I no longer knew which of the two it was. I threw it into one of them, and now I fear I may have returned it to the wrong heap. Tell me, then, which deed do you fear most?’

The other answered, ‘What I fear most is that whenever I stand for prayer, I am afraid I may be leaning on one leg more than on the other.’

Their father was listening and said, ‘O Allah, if these two are truthful, then take them to Yourself before they become a trial for us.’ And they both died.”