Statement about slightly lesser reward of Abdullah ibn Rawaha (radillahu anhu)

Question

While listening to a seerah lecture about the battle of Mu'tah, the lecturer made an interesting statement. First, the setup (paraphrased):

Zayd ibn Thabit took the flag. Immediately, the Muslims were surrounded, and he was killed. Then Ja'far ibn Abi Talib took the flag, and again he was killed. Then Abdullah ibn Rawaha hesitated, said a poetry to himself, and took the flag, and was killed.

Then, his statement (again paraphrased):

Because of his hesitation, he was given a slightly farther away bed (in Paradise)

I believe he indicated that this statement is a Hadith of Rasulullah, although I cannot find any mention of it when I search online (in English).

Please identify this source for me, along with the full statement, in at least English (bonus if you also get the Arabic version).

Answer 1

The most authentic ahadith can be found in sahih al-Bukhari on the authority of Anas ibn Malik like:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Zaid took over the flag and was martyred. Then it was taken by Jafar who was martyred as well. Then `Abdullah bin Rawaha took the flag but he too was martyred and at that time the eyes of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) were full of tears. Then Khalid bin Al-Walid took the flag without being nominated as a chief (before hand) and was blessed with victory." (Version 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5)

None of them is quoting the additional statement about rewards nor the hesitation you've quoted.

The source therefore may be sirat ibn Hisham سيرة ابن هشام also called السيرة النبوية:

You may also find it in Siyar A'lam a-Nubala' سير أعلام النبلاء (al Hafid a-Dahabi):

قيل : لما جهز النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - إلى مؤتة الأمراء الثلاثة ، فقال : " الأمير زيد ، فإن أصيب فجعفر ، فإن أصيب ، فابن رواحة " . فلما قتلا ، كره ابن رواحة الإقدام ، فقال :
أقسمت يا نفس لتنزلنه طائعة أو لا لتكرهنه * فطالما قد كنت مطمئنه *
ما لي أراك تكرهين الجنه
فقاتل حتى قتل . (source)

Where there's only quoted that he had hesitated, and said a poetry to himself, but the whole story sounds doubtful because ad-Dhahahbi uses the expression: "it was said that ... قيل " at the beginning without quoting a source!

, Usd Alghaba أسد الغابة (Ibn al-Athyr) and Al Bidaya wa Nihaya البداية والنهاية (Ibn Kathir)

See also: Arabic wikipedia site about Abdullah ibn Rawaha عبد الله بن رواحة