al-Rāzī did. The reply is: This hadith, in this form, is a lie and a fabrication, without disagreement among hadith scholars. For this reason, Imam Ahmad did not include it among the reports he cited on this subject, nor did any of his students who learned from him mention it, whether among reports they deemed authentic or those they identified as defective. Likewise, Ibn Khuzaymah mentioned it neither among the reports he authenticated nor among those he identified as defective. Nor was it transmitted by the imams who compiled the hadiths on this subject in their works on the Sunnah, such as Ibn Abī ‘Āsim, al-Tabarānī, Ibn Mandah, and others.

For it belongs to the fabricated reports that anyone aware of their nature may mention only if he explains that they are fabricated, because the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:

“Whoever relates a hadith from me while thinking it to be a lie is one of the liars.”

This hadith is among the most utterly false reports attributed to Sufyān al-Thawrī