(356) ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us—Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Sulamī narrated—that he heard Yaḥyā b. Sulaym al-Ṭāʾifī, reporting from an unnamed authority, who said:

Moses, peace be upon him, once asked his Lord for a particular need, but its fulfillment was slow in coming and grew ever more distant. So he said, “Whatever Allah wills.” Instantly the need was placed before him. He exclaimed, “My Lord, I have been pleading for this need for so long, and You grant it to me only now?” Allah revealed to him: “O Moses, do you not know that your utterance, ‘Whatever Allah wills,’ is the most effective invocation by which needs are fulfilled?”