The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Allah has said, 'Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I have declared war on him. My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him. My servant continues to draw near to Me through voluntary acts of worship until I love him. When I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks of Me, I will surely grant him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him. I do not hesitate over anything I do as I hesitate over taking the soul of the believer. He hates death, and I hate to displease him.'"
قال رسول الله ﷺ: إن الله قال: من عادى لي وليا فقد آذنته بالحرب، وما تقرب إلي عبدي بشيء أحب إلي مما افترضت عليه، وما يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به، وبصره الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها، ورجله التي يمشي بها، وإن سألني لأعطينه، ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه، وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن، يكره الموت، وأنا أكره مساءته.
Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Softening of Hearts (6502), from Muhammad bin Uthman, who said, Khalid bin Mukhlad narrated to us, who said, Sulayman bin Bilal narrated to us, who said, Sharik bin Abd bin Abu Namir narrated to me, from Ata, from Abu Hurairah, and he mentioned it.Bukhari alone transmitted this hadith. Its chain includes Khalid bin Mukhlad, who is al-Qatawani al-Kufi, Abu Haytham. More than one scholar has criticized him. Ahmad said, "He has objectionable narrations." Ibn Saad said, "He is objectionable in his narrations, and excessive in his Shia leanings." Abu Hatim said, "His hadith is recorded but not relied upon." But Yahya and others said, "There is no harm in him." Ibn Adi cited several hadiths from him, none of which was this hadith of Abu Hurairah, and he said, "There is no harm in him, Allah willing."Ibn Hajar Dhahabi was strict regarding him in his biographical entry in al-Mizan. After mentioning the scholars' statements about Khalid bin Mukhlad, and then citing the hadith of Abu Hurairah, he said, "This is a very strange hadith. Were it not for the reverence accorded to the compiler of the Sahih, they would have counted it among the objectionable narrations of Khalid bin Mukhlad, because of the strangeness of its wording, and because it is something transmitted solely by Sharik, who is not a rigorous memorizer, and this text has not been narrated except through this chain, and no one besides Bukhari transmitted it, and I do not think it is in the Musnad of Ahmad. There is also disagreement about Ata, some say he is Ibn Abu Rabah, but the correct view is that he is Ata bin Yasar."Ibn Hajar responded to him in Fath al-Bari (11/341), saying, "It is definitely not in the Musnad of Ahmad, and the blanket claim that this text was narrated only through this chain is rejected." He then said, "The hadith has other paths, which together indicate that it has a basis." By "paths" here he means corroborating narrations, since he did not mention any actual path for the hadith of Abu Hurairah.As for the corroborating narrations he mentioned, they come from Ayesha, Abu Umama, Ali, Ibn Abbas, Anas, Huzaifa, and Muaz bin Jabal. Each of these has some issue, so I have passed over them and not mentioned them. Nevertheless, it is established from these daif corroborating narrations that the hadith of Abu Hurairah transmitted by Bukhari has a basis, as Ibn Hajar stated.