I have tested people before you," he added in another version, "and I strove hard with the Children of Israel, yet your community will never be able to endure this. Go back to your Lord and ask Him to lighten it for you.”

He continued: “So I returned to my Lord and asked Him to ease it for me, and He reduced it to forty. Then I came back to Moses, who said, ‘What have you done?’ I replied, ‘He has made them forty.’ He said the same to me as he had the first time.

“I returned to my Lord, and He reduced them to thirty. I went to Moses and informed him; he repeated what he had said before, so I went back to my Lord, and He made them twenty, then ten, then five.

“I passed by Moses and told him, and he repeated his earlier words. I said, ‘I am ashamed before my Lord. How many times should I return to Him? I am content and submit.’

“When I moved on, a caller announced—in another narration a voice proclaimed—‘I have confirmed My obligation, lightened it for My servants, and I reward every good deed tenfold.’”

Recorded by Aḥmad 4/207–210—the wording is his in one of his narratives through Hishām al-Dastawāʾī—and by Bukhārī 3207 and 3393.