488 – ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “When the news of Jaʿfar’s death reached us after he had been killed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Prepare food for the family of Jaʿfar, for something has befallen them that is occupying them.’” Narrated by the Five compilers except al-Nasāʾī (1).

• Hadith grading
This hadith is ḥasan (fair).
Al-Tal khīṣ states: It was transmitted by al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī—who declared it ḥasan—together with Ibn Mājah, al-Dāraquṭnī ⦗2/78⦘, and al-Ḥākim ⦗1/527⦘ through the chain of ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar; Ibn al-Sakan judged it authentic. It was also narrated by Aḥmad, al-Ṭabarānī, and Ibn Mājah from the report of Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, the mother of ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar.

• Vocabulary
– naʿy: to announce a person’s death. In the pre-Islamic custom it referred to calling out someone’s death while praising his virtues, e.g., “O mountain of strength, O paragon of honor!”
– iṣnaʿū (“prepare”): the verb ṣanaʿa means “to do something well”; here it instructs the cooking of food for Jaʿfar’s bereaved household.
– Āl Jaʿfar: Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib’s family—his wife Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays and their children.
– mā yashghaluhum: al-Rāghib explains that shughul (preoccupation) is an occurrence that distracts and occupies a person.

• Lessons derived from the hadith
1 – In the eighth year after the Hijrah the Prophet ﷺ dispatched an army to Muʾtah, a village on the eastern side of greater Syria, to confront the Byzantines. He appointed Zayd ibn Ḥārithah as the commander; if he were killed, then Jaʿfar ibn Abī