337 – Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led the prayer, so I and an orphan stood behind him, and Umm Sulaym stood behind us.” Agreed upon; the wording is that of al-Bukhārī (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
– al-yatīm (orphan): a child whose father has died before the child reaches puberty. Among animals the term refers to one that has lost its mother. The orphan mentioned here is Ḍumāyra ibn Abī Ḍumra, a client of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
– “I and an orphan stood”: the noun “orphan” is conjoined to the hidden subject pronoun and therefore carries the nominative case. Al-Bukhārī’s wording is “I lined up with the orphan,” which the Kufan grammarians cite as proof that a noun may be joined to an attached pronoun in the nominative without an emphatic particle. The Basran grammarians, by contrast, hold that it should be in the accusative as a mafʿūl maʿah (object of accompaniment).
– Umm Sulaym: Ghumiṣāʾ (also called Rumayṣāʾ) bint Milḥān al-Anṣāriyyah, the mother of Anas ibn Mālik.
– “Umm Sulaym stood behind us”: Al-Bukhārī entitled the chapter “A woman by herself forms a row.” Al-Ismāʿīlī objected that a single man or woman cannot be called a “row,” for the minimum number to constitute a row is two. The reply cited the Qur’anic verse, “On the Day when the Spirit and the angels will stand in ranks” (78:38); in that verse the Spirit is mentioned alone yet is still called a rank, while the angels form another rank.

Lessons derived from the ḥadīth

1. Umm Sulaym, the mother of Anas ibn Mālik, invited the Prophet ﷺ to a meal she had prepared. He accepted the invitation and entered her home. When they had finished eating he ﷺ said, “Rise so that I may lead you in prayer.” Anas and an orphan rose with him inside the house and formed a row behind the Prophet ﷺ, and she lined up.