In another report, the Prophet went out to receive him, embraced him, and kissed him.
According to the sound collections, in the narration of al-Barāʾ and others, the Prophet ﷺ said to Jaʿfar, “You resemble me in both appearance and character.” (1)
Aḥmad records: ʿAffān related to us; Wuhaib related to us; Khālid related to us, from ʿIkrimah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said, “After the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, no one ever put on sandals or mounted a riding beast more excellent than Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib.” (2) That is, with respect to generosity and open-handedness.
A number of authorities transmit this report from Khālid, though it contains a hidden flaw; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr relates it from Khālid, from Abū Qilābah, from Abū Hurayrah.
Ibn ʿAjlān, on the authority of al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, said, “We used to call Jaʿfar ‘the father of the poor.’ He would take us to his house, and if he found nothing to offer us he would bring out a small jar that still bore traces of honey; we would split it open and lick it.” (3)
(1) Its documentation has already been given on p. 214, note 4.
(2) The chain is sound. The hadith is recorded by Ahmad, 2/413; al-Tirmidhi, no. 3768, who classed it “hasan sahih gharib”; Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat, 4/1/28; and is cited by Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah, 2/86, who notes that it is transmitted by al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasaʾi with a sound isnad. Al-Hakim, 3/209, also authenticated it, and al-Dhahabi agreed.
(3) The chain is hasan. Al-Bukhari records it under “Merits of the Companions” (no. 3708, chapter: The virtues of Jaʿfar) and again in “Foods” (no. 5432, chapter: Sweets and honey), through Ibn Abi Dhib – Saʿid al-Maqburi – Abu Hurayra, who said: “People used to say that Abu Hurayra relates too many reports, but I kept close to the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, driven by hunger: I neither ate leavened bread nor wore al-habir (a fine, patterned Yemeni mantle), and I had no servant, male or female. I would press my stomach against the gravel from hunger, and I would recite a verse that I already knew to a man so that he might take me home and feed me. The most generous of people to the poor was Jaʿfar b. Abi Talib: he would take us in and give us whatever he had at home, even bringing out an ʿukka (a skin container) that held nothing; he would split it open and we would lick what remained inside.” – Al-habir is a striped, embroidered mantle; the ʿukka (with a doubled k) is a vessel for clarified butter.