They met at Radʿ Ahmar (1) and engaged in fierce combat. Zayd ibn Ḥārithah took up the banner and was slain; Jaʿfar then seized it and was slain; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah took it next and was also slain. After the three commanders appointed by the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had fallen, the Muslims agreed to place the standard in the hands of Khālid ibn al-Walīd al-Makhzūmī. Allah thereupon routed the enemy and granted victory to the Muslims.
He (the narrator) said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had dispatched them in Jumādā al-Ūlā of the eighth year AH.
Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah said: They relate that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—declared, “Jaʿfar passed by me among the angels, flying as they fly, with two wings of his own.”
He also said: They claim—and Allah knows best—that Yaʿlā ibn Umayyah arrived with news from Muʾtah. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to him, “If you wish, you may inform me; or, if you prefer, I will tell you.” He replied, “Tell me, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet then recounted everything that had happened and described it in detail. Yaʿlā said, “By Him who sent you with the truth, you omitted not a single word of their story; their affair is exactly as you have described.” The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—responded, “Allah unfolded the earth for me until I could see their battlefield.”
This account contains many benefits absent from Ibn Isḥāq and contradicts his report that Khālid merely screened the Muslim force and extracted them from the Romans and the Christian Arabs. Both Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah and al-Wāqidī state explicitly that he actually defeated the combined Roman and Arab hosts. This is also the obvious meaning of the ḥadīth related above from Anas, in which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “Then the banner was taken up by a sword of the swords of Allah, and Allah opened victory at his hands,” a report transmitted by al-Bukhārī (2). Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī (3) preferred and inclined toward this view after presenting the two positions, relying on that ḥadīth.
I say: It is possible to reconcile Ibn Isḥāq’s statement with the others. When Khālid first received the banner he shielded the Muslim contingent, rescuing them from the Romans and the Arab Christians. Then, at dawn, he rearranged the army—placing the right wing on the left, the left on the right, the vanguard at the rear, and the rear at the front, exactly as al-Wāqidī relates. The Romans assumed this meant fresh reinforcements had arrived for the Muslims; when Khālid charged, he defeated them by Allah’s leave. Allah knows best.
Yet Ibn Isḥāq (4) narrates—through Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar from ʿUrwah—that when the contingent from Muʾtah drew near, the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—went out to meet them with the Muslims. The children also ran to greet them while the Prophet approached on a mount. He said, “Take up the children and carry them; bring me the son of Jaʿfar.” ʿAbd Allāh was brought, and the Prophet placed him in front of himself. Meanwhile the people flung dust at the returning soldiers, crying, “Fugitives! You fled in the path of Allah?” The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—replied, “They are not fugitives; rather they are those who return to the charge, if Allah wills.”
This isn’t linked to any continuous isnād here and is unusual. In my view Ibn Isḥāq erred in assuming that this reproach concerned the bulk of the army; it applied only to those few who had fled at the first clash. The remainder did not flee—indeed, they were granted victory, exactly as the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had informed them.