On the authority of ‘Alee (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (sallaahu wa alayhi wa sallam) stated: “Whoever narrates on me a narration and he sees it to be a lie then he is one of the two liars.” (Ibn Maajah Authenticated by Imaam al-Albaani).

Shaykh Ubayd al-Jaabiree commented on this narration:

This Hadeeth is a stern warning against the one who narrates a narration that the person himself sees to be a lie. The threat is directed towards him. Therefore he is one of the two liars. That’s because he agreed with the lie by narrating on him (the one who he got the narration from) that which he knows to be lie. So the one who narrates on others has one of three situations: 1. He knows the truthfulness of that which he narrates or it overwhelms his belief that (the information) is true so he narrates it. The threat is not directed towards this individual, nor any blame or fault on his end. Even if it was to become clear to him (afterwards) that the narration/news is a lie, there’s no sin upon him. 2. He knows that which he narrates is a lie. 3. It becomes clear to him from the people that the news/information is a lie, rejected by the people and they do not accept it. The severe threat is directed towards these last two categories of people. It’s possible one may say: What’s the difference between the second and the third person? We say that the second person knows himself that what he narrates to the people is a lie. As for the third, then it is from the state of the people that he understands that his speech/narration is a lie and he doesn’t have with him a proof to remove this accusation. Allaah knows best.

Taken from: Sharh of the Muqaddimah of Ibn Maajah, pg. 51-52

Translated by Abu Yusuf Khaleefah, NYC, USA
On the 17th of Rabee’ al-Awwal, 1435 H
(01-19-2014)