both practised tadlīs (concealing intermediaries in transmission), the answer is that Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh and Ahmad ibn Hanbal both graded it authentic, and everyone agrees that they are of greater standing than Ibn Khuzaymah.

Furthermore, it is clear that if ‘Atā’ ibn Abī Rabāh transmitted this hadith from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with a disconnected chain, he must have heard it from someone. If, in one of the two chains, he explicitly stated that he received it from Ibn ‘Umar, this clarifies and explains what he left unstated and omitted in the other chain. This does not constitute any discrepancy at all.

Moreover, even supposing that ‘Atā’ transmitted it only with a disconnected chain from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, it is well known that ‘Atā’ is among the most eminent Successors, for he and Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyab