of Allah ﷺ to bear the burden.’ Both Bukhārī and Muslim relate the report on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from the same chain.

Yūnus narrated from Ibn Isḥāq: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ḥazm told me, on the authority of Umm ʿĪsā al-Jazzār, from Umm Jaʿfar, from her grandmother Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays. She said: “When Jaʿfar and his companions were killed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to my house. I had just kneaded dough and washed, anointed, and cleaned my children. He said, ‘Bring me the sons of Jaʿfar.’ I brought them to him, he smelled them, and his eyes filled with tears. I asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransomed for you—what makes you weep? Has news reached you concerning Jaʿfar and his companions?’ He replied, ‘Yes. They were slain today.’ I began to cry and the people gathered around. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then returned to his household and said, ‘Do not neglect the family of Jaʿfar—prepare food for them, for they are preoccupied with the matter of their man.’

Ibn Isḥāq said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr say, ‘I witnessed the people of Medina: whenever someone among them died, that very day his neighbors would look after his family’s food. I can almost see them now—baking small loaves, cooking meat, placing it all in a large bowl, and bringing it to the bereaved while they sat weeping over their dead, busy with their loss. They would eat it. Later, however, people abandoned the practice.’

Note: Muslim includes in his Ṣaḥīḥ a hadith from ʿAwf ibn Mālik who said, ‘I set out on the campaign of Muʾtah, and a man from the Yemeni reinforcements accompanied me; he had nothing with him but his sword. Someone slaughtered a camel, and the Yemeni asked him for a strip of its hide, so the man gave it to him…’