ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Bakr related to me, from ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr, that Umm Salama said to the wife of Salama ibn Hishām ibn al-Mughīra, “Why is it that I no longer see Salama attending the prayer with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ? By Allah, the man can hardly step outside; every time he does the people shout at him, ‘You deserter— you fled in the path of Allah!’ He had been with the army at Muʾtah.”

On the authority of Zayd ibn Arqam: “I was an orphan under the care of ʿAbdallāh ibn Rawāḥah. He took me with him on that expedition, seating me behind him on the pad of his saddle. By Allah, as we were travelling I heard him recite these verses:

When you have brought me near and borne my load,
A march of four full days beyond al-Hasāʾ,
Then go your way—enjoy yourself, no blame on you—
For I shall not return to the family behind me.
The Muslims will come back while they leave me lying
In Syrian land, my resting-place well known.
Every close blood-kin may guide you to the water-point,
Yet before the Compassionate all fellowship is cut.
There I shall care no more for Baʿl’s ripe clusters,
Nor for the date-palms whose bases drink deep water.

When I heard those lines I began to cry, so he tapped me with his small whip and said, ‘What is it with you, little rascal? What harm is there if Allah grants me martyrdom while you ride back safe between the two panniers of the saddle!’ ”

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām said: A trustworthy informant told me that Jaʿfar seized the banner with his right hand and it was cut off; he took it with his left and it too was cut off; so he hugged it to his chest with the stumps of his arms until he was killed—he was thirty-three years old. In return, Allah—exalted is He—granted him two wings in Paradise with which he may fly wherever he wishes. It is also related that they killed him with spears.

Biographical notice of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib:
I say: Jaʿfar was among the very first believers; he took part in both migrations. He said to him