In another narration Anas said, “By Allah, my wealth is so abundant that even my date-palms and my vineyard bear fruit twice in a single year, and my children and grandchildren now number about one hundred.”
Another report states, “My own offspring alone are one hundred and six.” This ḥadith is transmitted through many chains and appears in a great variety of wordings.
Yet another version relates that Anas said, “My daughter Āminah informed me that, by the time al-Ḥajjāj arrived, one hundred and twenty of my own children had already been buried.” ⦗1⦘
The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir ⦗2⦘ has traced these reports exhaustively, documenting their chains of transmission and wordings in his biography of Anas. We have likewise cited part of them in the Book of the Signs of Prophethood at the close of the Sīrah. All praise belongs to Allah.
Thābit once asked Anas, “Did your hand ever touch the palm of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He replied, “Yes!” Thābit said, “Then give me that hand so I may kiss it.”
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ⦗3⦘ narrated, through Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, from al-Muthannā ibn Saʿīd al-Dhiraʿ ⦗4⦘, who said: I heard Anas ibn Mālik say, “Not a single night passes without my seeing my beloved, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,” whereupon he would weep.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ⦗5⦘ also reported—through Abū Nuʿaym, from Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, from al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr—that “Anas was the keeper of the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ sandals and his water-skin.”
Abū Dāwūd recorded: Ḥakam ibn ʿAṭiyyah related to us, from Thābit, from Anas, who said, “I hope to meet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and say, ‘O Messenger of Allah, your little servant (khuwaydimuk) has come.’ ”
Imām Aḥmad ⦗6⦘ said: Yūnus narrated to us; Ḥarb ibn Maymūn narrated to us, from al-Naḍr ibn Anas, from Anas, who said: “I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to intercede for me on the Day of Resurrection.” He answered, “I shall do so.” I asked, “Where should I look for you on that Day, O Prophet of Allah?” He replied, “Look for me first at the al-sirāt (the Bridge).” I said, “And if I do not meet you at the Bridge?” He said, “Then I will be at the al-mizān (the Balance).” I said, “And if I do not find you at the Balance either?” He said, “Then I will be at the al-ḥawḍ (the Basin); I shall not miss these three stations on the Day of Resurrection.” Al-Tirmidhī ⦗7⦘ and others transmitted this report as well through Ḥarb ibn Maymūn—Abū al-Khiṭāb al-Anṣārī—and declared it ḥasan gharīb, saying, “We know it only through this route.”
Shuʿbah reported, on the authority of Thābit, that Abū Hurayrah said, “I have never seen anyone whose prayer so closely resembled that of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as the son of Umm Sulaym”—that is, Anas ibn Mālik ⦗8⦘.