and said, “I expect to be the very first to fall alongside the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” This was on the eve of the Battle of Uhud. He then advised him, saying, “After the Messenger of Allah there is no one dearer to me than you. I have debts, so pay them on my behalf, and look after your sisters.”
The battle took place, ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥarām fought and was killed—may Allah be pleased with him. Seventy men were slain that day, and it was burdensome for the Muslims to dig a separate grave for each martyr, so they buried two or three together. Another man was therefore interred with Jabir’s father. Yet Jabir—may Allah be pleased with him—could not rest until he separated his father from the one buried with him. Six months later he exhumed him and found him as though he had been buried that very day; nothing had changed except a slight mark on his ear. He then placed him in a separate grave.
As for Jabir, he paid off his father’s debts and treated his sisters kindly. He later married, choosing a previously-married woman. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, asked, “Have you married?” He replied, “Yes.” “A virgin or a previously-married woman?” He replied, “A previously-married woman.” The Prophet said, “Why did you not marry a virgin, so that you could play with her and she with you, laugh with her and she with you?” Jabir explained, “Messenger of Allah, my father left behind sisters, and I took a previously-married woman so that she could look after them (serve them).”
This narration contains a miracle bestowed upon Jabir’s father, ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥarām—may Allah be pleased with him—for Allah made his dream come true and he became the first martyr at Uhud. He was buried, yet after six months the earth had consumed nothing of him except a negligible part; this is one of his distinctions.
Know that when a person is buried the earth consumes him, leaving only the tailbone (ʿajb al-dhanab). This tailbone is like a seed from which people will be recreated on the Day of Resurrection; bodies will grow from it. The only exception are the Prophets—peace be upon them—for the earth does not consume them, as