Ibrāhīm ibn Mahdī narrated, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Zayd, who said: “We came to Ayyūb, and he told us, ‘Go—ʿAtāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib has just arrived from Kūfa, and he is trustworthy. Go to him and ask him about the report he narrates from his father concerning the formula of glorification (tasbīḥ) (1).’
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī related from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, who said: “I have never heard anyone criticise ʿAtāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib with respect to his early narrations. Whatever Sufyān and Shuʿbah transmit from him is sound, except for two reports about which Shuʿbah would say, ‘I only heard them later,’ on the authority of Zādhān.”
Aḥmad ibn Sinān reported from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān: “Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, ʿAtāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib and Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād—Layth is, in my view, the best of the three in overall standing.”
ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah likewise narrated from Jarīr who, when those three were mentioned, said: “Yazīd is the most accurate of them in hadith, then ʿAtāʾ.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “ʿAtāʾ is reliable, reliable—an upright man.” He also stated: “Whoever heard from him early on, his narrations are sound; whoever heard from him later, they are worthless.”
Those who heard from him in the earlier period were Shuʿbah and Sufyān.
Those who heard from him in his later years were Jarīr, Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allah, Ismāʿīl, and ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim.
He used to trace back to the Prophet certain reports from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr that Saʿīd himself had not traced back.
(1) Reported by Abu Dawud (no. 1502) through the chain: al-Aʿmash – ʿAtaʾ b. al-Saʾib – his father – ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAmr, who said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ counting the tasbih with his right hand.” The chain is sound (sahih).
Al-Aʿmash’s narration from ʿAtaʾ dates from the period before the latter’s memory confusion, and the two are contemporaries. Hammad b. Zayd corroborated it in Ibn Hibban (no. 2343); he too heard from ʿAtaʾ before his lapse.
A longer version is found in Ahmad, Musnad 2/160-161, 204-205; Abu Dawud (no. 5065); and al-Nasaʾi 3/74-75, with the wording: “Two practices—or two traits—no Muslim slave consistently maintains without entering Paradise. They are easy, yet few act upon them: after every salah he recites tasbih ten times, tahmid ten times, and takbir ten times; that makes 150 on the tongue and 1,500 on the scale. When he goes to bed he recites takbir thirty-four times, tahmid thirty-three, and tasbih thirty-three; that is 100 on the tongue and 1,000 on the scale. I myself saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ counting them on his hand.” They asked, “Messenger of Allah, how are they easy while few perform them?” He replied, “Your foe—meaning Satan—comes to one of you in his sleep and lulls him before he says them, and comes to him in his prayer and reminds him of his needs before he says them.”
This extended chain is also sound. In Ahmad and Abu Dawud another route runs through Shuʿbah from ʿAtaʾ; Shuʿbah likewise heard from him before the period of confusion.