My heart surged toward Jaʿfar that day at Muʾtah—
 when the arrow could no longer aid the archer;
He pressed their two flanks hard against our own,
 true Emigrants, not idolaters, nor men unarmed.

Ibn Isḥāq (1) remarks: In these verses Qays resolves the question over which people differed—namely, that the men held back and shrank from death, and that Khālid’s withdrawal with those who were with him was a deliberate disengagement.

Ibn Hishām adds: Al-Zuhrī said, according to what has reached us, “The Muslims placed Khālid ibn al-Walīd in command; Allah then granted them victory, and he remained their leader until he returned to Madinah.”

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Ibn Isḥāq (2) relates: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr told me, on the authority of Umm ʿĪsā al-Khuzāʿiyyah, from Umm Jaʿfar bint Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, from her grandmother Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, who said:

When Jaʿfar and his companions were killed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to me. I had just finished tanning forty hides, kneaded my dough, washed my children, anointed them, and tidied them up. He said, “Bring me the sons of Jaʿfar.” I brought them to him; he sniffed them and tears welled up in his eyes. I asked, “O Messenger of Allah—may my father and mother be your ransom—what makes you weep? Has news reached you concerning Jaʿfar and his companions?” He replied, “Yes; they were struck down today.”

I rose and began to wail, and the women gathered around me. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then went out to his family and said, “Do not neglect the household of Jaʿfar; prepare food for them, for they have been preoccupied with the affair of their guardian.”

Imām Aḥmad (3) recorded this in the same manner through Ibn Isḥāq. Ibn Mājah (4) likewise transmitted it via Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr, from Umm ʿĪsā, from Umm ʿAwn bint Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar, from Asmāʾ—mentioning the instruction to prepare food; the correct version, however, is that she is both Umm Jaʿfar and Umm ʿAwn.

Imām Aḥmad (5) also said: Sufyān narrated to us, Jaʿfar ibn Khālid narrated to us, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, who said: When the news of Jaʿfar’s death reached us, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Prepare food for the family of Jaʿfar, for an affair has come upon them that occupies them”—or, “Something has happened that preoccupies them.”