What prevents me from narrating frequently from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is not that I was less attentive than his other companions in retaining his words, but I bear witness that I heard him say, "Whoever attributes to me what I did not say, let him take his seat in the Fire."
ما يمنعني أن أحدث عن رسول الله ﷺ أن لا أكون أوعى أصحابه عنه، ولكني أشهد لسمعته يقول: من قال علي ما لم أقل فليتبوأ مقعده من النار.
Ahmad (469) narrated it through two routes, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Zinad, from his father, from Amir bin Saad, who said, "I heard Uthman bin Affan," and then he related the hadith. Ahmad (507) and Bazzar (384) both narrated it through the route of Abdul-Kabir bin Abdul-Majid, Abu Bakr Hanafi, who said, Abdul-Hameed bin Jafar told us, from his father, from Mahmud bin Labeed, from Uthman bin Affan, and he related something similar.Haythami said, "This is a hadith whose narrators are the narrators of sahih, and the first route contains Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Zinad, who is daif, though he has been deemed reliable by some." As for the second route, it comes through the narration of Mahmud bin Labeed from Uthman, and Mahmud bin Labeed is not known to have heard directly from Uthman. Bazzar said, "It is not known that Mahmud bin Labeed heard from Uthman, even though he lived in that early period." Nevertheless, each of the two routes strengthens the other.