Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 672

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Once we were sitting and noting down the things we had heard from the tongue of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Meanwhile the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to us. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "What are you noting down?" We said: "The things we have heard from you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Will something else be noted down alongside the Book of Allah? Leave only the Book of Allah." The narrator says: We gathered everything we had noted down in one open place and then burned it with fire. We said: "O Messenger of Allah! May we narrate hadiths on your authority?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes! Narrate hadith on my authority; there is no harm in it. And whoever deliberately attributes a lie to me should prepare to reach his designated abode in Hell." The narrator says: We said: "O Messenger of Allah! May we narrate reports about the Children of Israel?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes! Narrate reports about the Children of Israel; there is no harm in it. Whatever you narrate about them, there was something even more astonishing than it among them." (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: in the "Sahih" this hadith is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), but without this context.
Imam Ahmad recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Abd al-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam, who is da'if (weak), and the rest of its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.