A beautiful Hadith – Ali, Jafar and Zayd dance in front of the Prophet ﷺ

Sayiduna Ali (alayhi salam) said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to myself, Ja’far (ibn abi Talib) and Zayd (ibn Haritha) and he said to Zayd “You are our brother and freeman”.

(Upon hearing this) Zayd began to dance (hajala)¹.

Then he ﷺ said to Ja’far “You resemble me in appearance and character”.

So Ja’far began to dance behind Zayd.

Then he ﷺ said to me “You are from me and I am from you”. So I began to dance behind Ja’far!

Bayhaqi ²

Footnotes

1. Hajala is to dance by lifting one leg and hop on the other out of joy
2. This Hadith is mentioned by Sheikh Abu ul-Huda Muhammad al-Yaqoubi in his modern masterpiece ‘Shamail al-Habib al-Mustafa’. After quoting the Hadith he mentioned the following: “A fair hadith (hadith hasan) reported by Ahmed and Bayhaqi, and the wording is his. The origin of the Hadith can be found in Bukhari and Muslim from Bara ibn Azib in the hadith of the truce of Hudaybiya but without the mention of the dancing.”