As for the hadith master Abū al-‘Alā’ and others like him, by “fabricated” they mean only a report deliberately invented by someone who knowingly lied. Lying was rare among the early generations.
As for the Companions, none of them is known—praise be to Allah—to have deliberately attributed a lie to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Likewise, none is known to have followed the well-known religious innovations, such as those of the Khawārij, Rāfidah, Qadariyyah, and Murji’ah. No Companion is known to have belonged to any of these sects.
Nor was there anyone among them who claimed that al-Khidr had visited him. The al-Khidr who accompanied Moses died, as has been explained elsewhere. The “al-Khidr” who visits many people is merely a jinn who has assumed human form, or a human liar. He cannot be an angel while claiming, “I am al-Khidr,” for angels do not lie; it is jinn and humans who lie. I know of cases in which people were visited by “al-Khidr,” who was in fact a jinn; recounting them here would take too long. The Companions were too knowledgeable to be taken in by such deception.
Likewise, none of them was carried by jinn to Mecca and taken to ‘Arafāt to perform the standing there, as jinn have done with many ignorant people, devout worshippers, and others. Nor was there anyone among them to whom jinn brought people’s wealth and food that they had stolen, leading him to suppose that this was a miraculous favor. These matters have been discussed at length elsewhere.
As for the Successors, deliberate lying was not known among those of Mecca, Medina, Syria, and Basra, unlike the Shī‘ah, among whom lying is known. After these generations, lying became known among various groups.