Your Prophet, ﷺ, said: “Among this community there are muhaddathīn (1)—men who receive divine inspiration—and ʿUmar is one of them (2).”

We accompanied people whose inner secrets Allah had laid bare to him, and their case had to be examined with fairness. A proclamation was then made throughout the Masmuda mountains: “Whoever is obedient to the Imām, let him come!” They came rushing, were presented to al-Bashīr, and he would place some of them on his right, counting them among the people of Paradise, and others on his left, saying, “These are the ones who still harbour doubt.”

If a man was brought forward he might say, “This one has repented—put him on the right; he repented last night,” and the man would confirm what he said. Many strange occurrences took place at his hands: he would dismiss those on the left, and although they knew their end was to be killed, not a single one fled. Whenever a group of them had been collected, their own relatives put them to death, so that a brother would even kill his brother.

What has reached me as certain is that seventy thousand were killed in this manner, a process they called “the Sorting.” When the sorting was complete, he sent his forces with al-Bashīr toward Aghmāt. The Almoravids met them and routed them; a number of the Masmuda stood their ground and were slain, and ʿUmar al-Hintānī sustained several wounds and had to be carried