After researching Shia references, this hadith was nowhere to be found and the only place it has been mentioned is in the book of Mizanul-I’tidal. The hadith says: “إن خرج الدجال تبعه من کان یحب عثمان” (If the Dajjal ever appears, his followers will all be lovers of Uthman). [1]

This hadith has been reported by a narrator by the name of Zayd ibn Wahab and what is interesting is that this hadith has been considered one of his weak points and reasons for him being an unreliable narrator. [2]

Nevertheless, the author of Mizanul-I’tidal has counted him as a great and reliable narrator of the Tabe’in (those who never saw the prophet (pbuh), yet saw his companions) and says: “This is a person that all six Sihahs have narrated hadiths from.” [3] The reason for the author of the book believing in his reliability being the sign of {ع } the he has placed next to the name of Zayd. According to the beginning of the book, all names of narrators that bear this sign are ones whom all six Sihahs have narrated from. [4] Zayd ibn Wahab has narrated from Umar, Uthman and Imam Ali (as). The author of Tahdhibul-Asma’ wal-Lughat, which is a Sunni rijali book (rijal is “the science of people” which concentrates on the narrators of different hadiths and tries to distinguish between reliable ones and unreliable ones, listing the traits of each of them) has considered him reliable saying: “There is a consensus on his reliability.” [5] He lived during the prophet’s (pbuh) time, but after embracing Islam failed to reach and see him before his demise, hence him being a Tabe’i instead of a Sahabi.

Therefore, since this hadith hasn’t been mentioned in credible Shia or Sunni references, and since some like Yaqub al-Fasawi have discredited him because of this very hadith [6] , it can't be said for sure that the hadith is an authentic one.

Zayd’s reliability hasn’t been confirmed in Shia rijali books; he has only been referred to as one of Imam Ali’s (as) companions in the rijal book of Ibn Dawud [7] , and in his book Al-Fihrist [8] , Sheikh Tusi has associated a book that Imam Ali’s (as) sayings have been gathered in to him, without mentioning anything about his reliability.

Another point that needs to be made is that although this hadith hasn’t been mentioned in Shia sources, yet there is a hadith in Biharul-Anwar [9] that conveys the same message, but as with the hadith Zayd narrates, this hadith also lacks a decent chain of narrators; meaning that the reliability of the narrators hasn’t been confirmed in Shia rijal books. For instance, Sheikh Tusi has mentioned the name of the narrators in his rijal book, without saying anything about their reliability or not. [10]

Conclusion:

Zayd ibn Wahab is reliable amongst Sunni scholars, yet this specific hadith hasn’t been mentioned in any of their books, other than a rijali book of theirs by the name of Mizanul-I’tidal. Therefore, it seems that this hadith hasn’t been accepted by them. Also, this hadith hasn’t been mentioned with the same wordage in Shia sources either. [11]