Liars and Their Slanders against the Prophet

Hammad ibn Zayd is reported to have said:

The Zanadiqah (atheists) have fabricated twelve thousand traditions, ascribing them to the Messenger of Allah (S).

Al-Mahdi said: One of the Zanadiqah has confessed before me that he composed four hundred traditions, and they were being circulated and conveyed among people.

Ibn Asakir reported that a zindiq was brought once to al-Rashid who gave his orders to behead him, when he (zindiq) said: O Amir al-Mu’minin, aren’t you aware of four thousand traditions I fabricated, in which I forbid what is lawful (halal) and deem lawful what is forbidden (in the Qur’an). It is reported too that when Abd al-Karim ibn Abi al-Awja’ intended to behead him, he said: I have composed for you four thousand traditions forbidding through them what is lawful, and sanctioning what is unlawful (haram).

Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, who was the teacher of al-Bukhari, said: I commit to memory four thousand falsified traditions.

Sahl ibn al-Sirri al-Hafiz says: Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Jubyari, Muhammad ibn Ukashah al-Kirmani and Muhammad ibn Tamim al-Farabi falsified and fabricated more than ten thousand traditions against the Messenger of Allah.

Al-Bukhari writes: I commit to memory one hundred correct traditions and two hundred falsified traditions. Reports (akhbar) in this respect are countless, and whoever wants to get acquainted with more of them can refer to their sources, especially al-Suyuti’s book Tahdhir al-Khawass.
This is the last point I quote here, which I deem sufficient.

Adapted from: "Lights on the Muhammadan Sunnah" by: "Mahmud Ali Riyyah"