Abu Zur‘ah al-Dimashqi said:
Muhammad ibn Zur‘ah al-Ruʿayni narrated to me; Marwan ibn Muhammad narrated to us; Saʿid ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz narrated to us, from Ismaʿil ibn ʿUbayd Allah (1), from al-Saʾib ibn Yazid, who said:
“I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab say to Abu Hurayrah, ‘You must stop relating hadith from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, or I will send you back to the land of [Daws, and to Kaʿb al-Aḥbar he said: “You must stop narrating, or I will send you back to the land of] al-Qiradah (the monkeys)’ (2).”
Abu Zurʿah added: “I also heard Abu Mushir report something similar from Saʿid ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, but he did not supply a connected chain (3).”
This remark of ʿUmar is understood as stemming from his fear that people might place reports in contexts where they do not belong [that they might focus on hadith containing dispensations, and that a man who narrates in great quantity may inadvertently commit an error or slip, which others would then attribute to him, and the like] (4).
It is also related that ʿUmar later permitted him to narrate. Musaddad said: Khalid al-Ṭaḥḥan narrated to us; Yahya ibn ʿUbayd Allah (5) narrated to us, from Abu Hurayrah, who said:
“News of my narrations reached ʿUmar, so he sent for me and asked, ‘Were you with us the day we were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the house of so-and-so?’ I replied, ‘Yes—and I know why you are asking me about that.’ He said, ‘And why am I asking you?’ I answered, ‘Because on that day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire.”’ He said, ‘In that case, go and narrate.’” (6)
Imam Ahmad said: ʿAffan narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wahid—meaning Ibn Ziyad—narrated to us; ʿAsim ibn Kulayb narrated to us; my father narrated to me: I heard Abu Hurayrah—who used to begin his reports by saying, “The truthful and trusted Messenger of Allah ﷺ said”—declare: “Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire” (7). The same wording is transmitted from him through another chain as well.
Ibn Wahb said: Yahya ibn Ayyub narrated to me, from Muhammad ibn ʿAjlan, that Abu Hurayrah used to say: “I relate aḥadith which, had I mentioned them during the time of ʿUmar—or in his presence—he would have smashed my head” (8).