Question.  Some shias quoted ibn Quraiba from his book “Tawil mukhtalaful hadith”, where he said: Abu Hurayra was mentioned, and then he said: Umar, Uthman, Ali and Ayesha deemed him to be a liar.

Is true that ibn Qutaiba mocked that companion?

Answer: Bismillah, that’s nothing but a shia trick.

Ibn Qutaiba in his book at mentioned page indeed said:

وذكر أبا هريرة فقال أكذبه عمر وعثمان وعلي وعائشة رضوان الله عليهم

And mention Abu Huraira, and he (would) say: He was accused in lie by Umar, Uthman, Ali, Aisha, may Allah be pleased with them.

Here page 22 with mentioned text:

But exactly at the next page, you can see ibn Qutaiba saying:

قال أبو محمد هذا قوله في جلة أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ورضي عنهم كأنه لم يسمع بقول الله عز وجل في كتابه الكريم محمد رسول الله والذين معه إلى آخر السورة ولم يسمع بقوله تعالى لقد رضي الله عن المؤمنين إذ يبايعونك تحت الشجرة فعلم ما في قلوبهم فأنزل السكينة عليهم

And Abu Muhammad (ibn Qutaiba) said: These are his (al-Nazzam, one of the big mutazilits) sayings in regard of greatest companions of prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) and may Allah be pleased with them, as if he didn’t hear saying of Allah: “Muhammad is the prophet of Allah and thosewho are with him” till the end of the surah, and as if he didn’t hear saying of Allah: “Certainly Allah was well pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity on them”.

Here mentioned text from the page 23

So obviously what shias did? They quoted words of heretic, which ibn Qutaiba included in his book as example of his heresy, and then they picture that as if ibn Qutaiba was owner of those words. If you would read pages from part which they quoted, and little bit after, you would see that ibn Qutaiba gave there a lot of examples of such sayings against companions and sunnah from heretics. You can read defence of Abu Huraira by ibn Qutaiba, from those heretics, in the same book at page 38.

Wa Allahu Alam.