- Al-Tayālisī (no. 2027) also narrated it through the route of Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah from Thābit, omitting the sentence “My daughter has informed me …” and adding: “He said: ‘Stand up so that I may lead you in prayer at a time other than the prescribed prayer time.’ ”
A third route: Aḥmad said (3/108), “Ibn Abī ʿAdī narrated to us, from Ḥumayd, from Anas,” giving the report in full except that he did not mention placing him on his right side, and he added: “He then made supplication for Umm Sulaym and for her household.” He went on to say: “His eldest daughter Āminah told him that, up until the arrival of al-Ḥajjāj, he had buried from his own progeny a little over one hundred and twenty.”
I say: This three-link chain of transmission is sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim). Al-Safārīnī has discussed it in Nafathāt Ṣadr al-Mukmad (2/34, Islāmī Office edition). Al-Bukhārī (1/494) likewise recorded it through two other routes from Ḥumayd, and in one of them he explicitly states that Ḥumayd heard it directly from Anas.
Benefits and legal inferences drawn from the ḥadīth:
This narration contains numerous points; I shall mention a selection of them briefly, except where some elaboration is indispensable for clarity:
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It is permissible to supplicate for abundant wealth and offspring. Al-Bukhārī headed the ḥadīth with the title: “Chapter: Supplication for plentiful wealth and children along with blessing.”
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Wealth and children are a favour and a source of good when Allah, Blessed and Exalted, is obeyed in regard to them.
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The acceptance of the Prophet’s ﷺ supplication for Anas was realised, so that Anas became the richest of the Anṣār in both wealth and progeny.
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When someone is observing a voluntary fast and visits a people who offer him food, he is not obliged to break his fast; rather, he should invoke good for them. Among al-Bukhārī’s chapter headings for this ḥadīth is: “Chapter: One who visits a people and does not break his fast with them.”