In the expedition of Mutah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Zayd bin Haritha as commander, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "If Zayd is killed, then Jafar will take command, and if Jafar is killed, then Abdullah bin Rawaha."Abdullah said, "I was among them in that expedition. We searched for Jafar bin Abu Talib and found him among the slain, and we found on his body more than ninety wounds from spear thrusts and arrows."
أمر رسول الله ﷺ في غزوة موتة زيد بن حارثة، فقال رسول الله ﷺ: إن قتل زيد فجعفر، وإن قتل جعفرفعبد الله بن رواحة. قال عبد الله: كنت فيهم في تلك الغزوة فالتمسناجعفر بن أبي طالب، فوجدناه في القتلى، ووجدنا ما في جسده بضعاوتسعين من طعنة ورمية.
Bukhari related it in the Book of Military Expeditions (4260), from Ahmad bin Abu Bakr, who said, Mughira bin Abdul-Rahman narrated to us, from Abdullah bin Saeed, from Nafi, from Abdullah bin Umar, and he mentioned it.As for what has been reported from Ibn Abbas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent an expedition to Muta and appointed Zayd as commander, saying that if Zayd were killed then Jafar would take command, and if Jafar were killed then Ibn Rawaha would take command. Ibn Rawaha lagged behind and gathered his belongings to join the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who saw him and asked, "What kept you behind?" He said, "I am gathering my things to go with you." He said, "A morning or an evening spent in it is better than this world and everything in it." This narration is daif.Imam Ahmad related it (2317), from Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Abu Shayba, who said, Abu Khalid Ahmar narrated to us, from Hajjaj, from Hakam, from Miqsam, from Ibn Abbas, and he mentioned it. Tirmidhi also related it (2527), through the narration of Abu Muawiya, from Hajjaj, in similar wording, and he said, This is a hadith we do not know except through this route.Ali bin Madini said, Yahya bin Saeed said, Shuba said, Hakam heard only five hadiths from Miqsam, and Shuba enumerated them, and this hadith is not among what Shuba enumerated. It is as though Hakam did not actually hear this hadith from Miqsam.I say, it also contains Hajjaj, who is Ibn Arta, a mudallis, and he narrated this using an ambiguous form of transmission (an).