The mechanism of resonant light scattering in single-layer graphene is discussed. A new concept of electron–hole selfphotorecombination is proposed, which makes it possible to clearly separate the phenomena of resonant light scattering and resonant photoluminescence. It is established that Rayleigh resonant radiation has been found to consist of virtual and non-virtual components. It has been shown that Rayleigh radiation is mainly caused by resonant non-virtual optical transitions. The band of Rayleigh radiation due to resonant virtual transitions is quite wide, and the intensity is extremely low. On the basis of the presented theory, the results of numerical estimates of the linewidth and intensity of the Rayleigh band of single-layer graphene are in fairly good agreement with the experimental data.