“How delightful Paradise is and how near it has drawn:
pleasant it is, and its drink is cool.
The Romans—Romans indeed—their punishment is at hand;
my task, should I meet them, is to strike them.”
Al-Wāqidī related: ‘Abd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ‘Umar b. ‘Alī told us, from his father, who said:
“A Roman struck him, cutting him in two, and in one half of his body we counted more than thirty wounds.”
Abū Uways (1), from ‘Abd Allāh, from Nāfi‘, from Ibn ‘Umar, said:
“We lost Ja‘far on the day of Mu’tah; between stab and arrow-wound we counted some ninety injuries, all of them on the front of his body.” (2)
Usāmah b. Zayd al-Laythī, from Nāfi‘, that Ibn ‘Umar said:
“I gathered Ja‘far against my chest on the day of Mu’tah and found on the front of his body about forty blows and thrusts.” (3)
(1) ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbd Allah b. Uways b. Malik b. Abi ʿAmir al-Asbahiyy al-Madani, a cousin of Imam Malik and his brother-in-law (married to the Imam’s sister). His hadith is found in Muslim and in the four Sunan collections. Ibn Hajar states in al-Taqrib: “reliable, though he occasionally errs.”
(2) Reported by Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 1/117-118, and by al-Bukhari (no. 4261, Book of Military Expeditions, “The Campaign of Muʾtah in the lands of Syria”), through the chain: Mughira b. ʿAbd al-Rahman – ʿAbd Allah b. Saʿid – Nafiʿ – Ibn ʿUmar. The Prophet ﷺ appointed Zayd b. Haritha as commander at Muʾtah and said: “If Zayd is killed, then Jaʿfar; if Jaʿfar is killed, then ʿAbd Allah b. Rawaha.” ʿAbd Allah (Ibn ʿUmar) said: “I was present on that expedition. We searched for Jaʿfar b. Abi Talib and found him among the slain, bearing more than ninety wounds from stabs and arrows.” The same chain is cited by Abu Nuʿaym, Hilya, 1/117, by al-Hakim, 3/212 (who leaves the judgment tacit), and by al-Dhahabi and Ibn Saʿd, 4/1/26.
(3) Chain graded hasan. Also transmitted by al-Bukhari (no. 4260, Book of Military Expeditions, “The Campaign of Muʾtah”) via Ibn Wahb – ʿAmr – Ibn Abi Hilal, who said: Nafiʿ informed me that Ibn ʿUmar told him he stood over the body of Jaʿfar that day and counted fifty wounds—stabs and blows—none of them in his back.