Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī likewise transmitted the report, and al-Tirmidhī declared it sound, through the narration of Burayd with this very chain (1).

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (2) relates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent ʿAmr ibn Umayya al-Ḍamrī to the Negus to request the return of the remaining Companions who were still in Abyssinia; they came back in the company of Jaʿfar once the Prophet ﷺ had conquered Khaybar.

[Ibn Hishām] (3) says: Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated—from al-Ajlaḥ, from al-Shaʿbī—that Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the very day Khaybar was taken. The Prophet ﷺ kissed him between the eyes, embraced him, and said, “I do not know which of the two gladdens me more: the conquest of Khaybar or the arrival of Jaʿfar.” Sufyān al-Thawrī also reported it, from al-Ajlaḥ, from al-Shaʿbī, as a mursal tradition.

Al-Bayhaqī (4) recorded—through Ḥasan ibn Ḥusayn al-ʿUranī, from al-Ajlaḥ, from al-Shaʿbī, from Jābir—that: “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned from Khaybar, Jaʿfar returned from Abyssinia. He went out to meet him, kissed his forehead, and said, ‘By Allah, I do not know which gives me greater joy: the conquest of Khaybar or the arrival of Jaʿfar.’”

Al-Bayhaqī then added (5): Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī Ismāʿīl al-ʿAlawī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Bayrūtī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭaybah told me; Makkī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ruʿaynī narrated to us; Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to us, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, who said: “When Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib arrived from the land of Abyssinia, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out to welcome him. When Jaʿfar saw him he hopped”—Makkī explained, “meaning he walked on one foot out of reverence for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ”—“and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ kissed him between the eyes.” Al-Bayhaqī then remarked: “In its chain, up to al-Thawrī, are narrators who are unknown.”

Ibn Isḥāq (6) states: “Those who had remained with Jaʿfar from among the Meccans until they reached Khaybar with him numbered sixteen men.” He listed their names and those of their wives as follows:

• Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Hāshimī, his wife Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, and their son ʿAbd Allāh, who was born in Abyssinia;
• Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams, his wife Āminah bint Khalaf ibn Asʿad, and their two children Saʿīd and Amah bint Khālid, both born in Abyssinia;
• His brother ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ;
• Muʿayqib ibn Abī Fāṭimah, who was attached to the household of Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ.

He continued: “And Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays—an ally of the house of ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, and Aswad ibn Nawfal ibn …”