Umm Sulaym bint Milhan

Umm Sulaym bint Milhan al-Ansariyya, mother of Anas, servant of the Messenger of God; she was famous by her kunya ¹. Her name is disputed: said to be Suhayla, Rumayla, Rumaytha, Malika, or al-Ghumaysa' / al-Rumaysa' ¹.

In the Jahiliyya she married Malik ibn al-Nadr and bore Anas; she became Muslim with the Ansar's forerunners, Malik grew angry and went out to Syria and died there, and she married Abu Talha after him ¹.

Ahmad relates from Anas that Abu Talha proposed to Umm Sulaym before he was Muslim, and she said: "Abu Talha, do you not know your god you worship grows from the earth? ... are you not ashamed to worship a tree? If you become Muslim, I want no dower from you but it" — he came and bore the two testimonies, and she said to Anas: "marry Abu Talha" ¹. In Ibn Sa'd's account: "her dower was Islam" ².

Anas relates that the Prophet used to visit Umm Sulaym and she would offer him what she made for him; he entered no house but Umm Sulaym's apart from his wives' — when it was remarked on he said: "I have mercy on her: her brother and her father were killed with me" ². Ibn Hajar comments that his entering Umm Haram's house too is because the two sisters lived in one dwelling, and that she used to campaign with the Messenger of God ².

Ibn Sa'd narrates with a sound chain that Umm Sulaym took a dagger on the day of Hunayn; Abu Talha said: "Messenger of God, here is Umm Sulaym with a dagger" — she said: "I took it so that if one of the polytheists came near me I would rip his belly" ².

In the Sahih: a son of hers by Abu Talha died, and she told the household not to inform Abu Talha before her; when he came and asked she said "he is the calmest he has been" — he thought the boy had recovered; then she adorned herself for him and he slept with her. In the morning she said: "count your son among God's rewards" — he told the Prophet, who said: "may God bless you two in your night" — and she bore Abdullah ibn Abi Talha, and was granted children of whom ten complete Qur'an-reciters read the Qur'an ².

In the Sahih: when the Prophet arrived, Umm Sulaym said: "Messenger of God, here is Anas to serve you" — he was ten years old — and he served the Prophet from his arrival at Medina until he died ².

She related several hadiths from the Prophet; from her related her son Anas, Ibn Abbas, Zayd ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him) and Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Rahman ². Ibn Hajar mentions that Abu Umar took her lineage from Ibn al-Sakan but gave her mother's name as Malika, while Ibn al-Sakan's book has Aniqa — Ibn Fathun pointed this out ².

The Sheikh relates that the Prophet said that when he entered paradise he saw al-Rumaysa in front of him, who is Umm Sulaym, and that Abu Talha came to her as a suitor ³. He says that Umm Sulaym told Abu Talha that he was a sensible man who worshipped an idol he carved with his own hands and prostrated to, and the Sheikh comments that whoever knows everything but does not know God is as if he knows nothing ⁴. He mentions that Umm Sulaym told Abu Talha that a man like him is not turned down, and when he asked her what she wanted, she said that if he accepted Islam, that would be her dowry ⁵.

He recounts that Abu Talha accepted Islam, did well in his Islam and married Umm Sulaym, and the Sheikh says that the Prophet saw al-Rumaysa in paradise in front of him and was proud of his Companions as a teacher is proud of his pupils ⁶.