2538 – Al-Ḥasan reported: Abū Muḥammad Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Nuṣayr al-Khuldī told us; he said: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Faraj al-Hamdānī told us; he said: Hishām ibn Muḥammad ibn Makhlad ibn Maṭar told us; he said: Abū Tawbah told us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Muhājir narrated from Abū Balj ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said:

“While ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was seated on the pulpit one Friday delivering the sermon, he suddenly cried out at the top of his voice, ‘O Sāriyah, the mountain! O Sāriyah, the mountain!’ Then he went on with his sermon. The people found this strange.

When he descended and had led the prayer, they said, ‘Commander of the Believers, today you did something we have never known you to do.’

He asked, ‘What was that?’

They replied, ⦗1411⦘ ‘You said such-and-such,’ and they repeated the words he had shouted.

He said, ‘I said nothing of the kind.’

They insisted, ‘Yes, by Allah, you certainly did, Commander of the Believers.’

He said, ‘Then record today’s date in this month and wait to see what comes of it.’

ʿUmar had earlier dispatched Sāriyah on a campaign. The enemy pressed his forces and drove them back toward a mountain. When Sāriyah later returned he said, ‘While we were fighting the enemy we suddenly heard a voice—​we did not know what it was—​calling out three times, “O Sāriyah, the mountain!” Through it Allah repelled the enemy from us.’

They compared the dates and found that it was the very day on which ʿUmar had uttered those words.”