This clearly proves that the chain is interrupted, and the wording that precedes it points to the same, for Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn never met ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—he was born roughly ten years after ʿUmar’s death.

Some scholars have tried to argue the point from the ḥadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah, from his father:

A black bond-woman came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he returned from one of his expeditions and said, “I had vowed that if Allah brought you back in good condition”—in another version: “safe and sound”—“I would beat the duff in your presence [and sing].” He replied, “If you actually did so”—and in the other narration: “If you vowed, then fulfil it; but if you did not, then do not.”

So she began to beat the duff. Abū Bakr entered while she was beating it, and another person entered while she was beating it. Then ʿUmar came in; she thereupon placed her duff behind her—and in another version: under her backside—then sat on it with her head covered. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Indeed, Satan is frightened”—and in another version: “is afraid of you, O ʿUmar. I have been sitting here [while she was beating it]; these others came in [while she was beating it]; yet when you entered [O ʿUmar] she reacted as she did.” In yet another wording: “She threw the duff aside.”

Aḥmad recorded the report, and the wording cited above is his; the alternate version with its additional phrases is related by al-Tirmidhī, who declared it sound—as did Ibn Ḥibbān and Ibn al-Qaṭṭān. It is also cited in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, 1609 and 2261. Al-Ḥāfiẓ kept silent about it in Fatḥ al-Bārī, 11 / 587-5881.