The soundness of the hadeeth “Do not write anything from me…” and explanation of what it means
Question

                Is this hadeeth saheeh, and what does it mean: “Do not write anything from me, and whoever writes anything but the Qur’aan, let him erase it”? May Allaah reward you with good.
Praise be to Allah.It was 
          narrated from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri that the Messenger of Allaah 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not write anything 
          from me; whoever has written anything from me other than the Qur’aan, 
          let him erase it and narrate from me, for there is nothing wrong with 
          that.” (Narrated by Muslim, al-Zuhd wa’l-Raqaa’iq, 5326) 
Al-Nawawi 
          said in his commentary on Saheeh Muslim: 
“Al-Qaadi 
          said: there were many disputes among the Sahaabah and Taabi’een concerning 
          the writing down of knowledge. Many of them regarded this as being makrooh, 
          but most of them regarded it as permissible. This dispute is no longer 
          an issue. 
They differed 
          as to the meaning of this hadeeth which says that it is forbidden. It 
          was said that this pertained to one who was sure of his memory, and 
          there was the fear that he may rely upon what he had written if he wrote 
          it down; the ahaadeeth which say that it is permissible to write things 
          down is to be interpreted as referring to the one whose memory is not 
          reliable, such as the hadeeth, “Write it down for Abu Shaah”; or the 
          hadeeth of the saheefah of ‘Ali (may Allaah be pleased with him); the 
          hadeeth of the book of ‘Amr ibn Hazm, which contains laws on inheritance, 
          sunnahs and diyaat (blood money); the hadeeth about writing down charity, 
          and the minimum amounts at which zakaah becomes obligatory (nisaab), 
          with which Abu Bakr sent Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him) to Bahrain; 
          the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah which says that Ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas used 
          to ; write things down but he (Abu Hurayrah) did not write things down, 
          and other ahaadeeth. And it was said that the hadeeth forbidding writing 
          down ahaadeeth was abrogated by these ahaadeeth. The prohibition was 
          in effect when there was the fear that (the words of the Prophet 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) might be mixed with the 
          Qur’aan. When that danger was no longer present, permission was given 
          to write down (ahaadeeth). And it was said that the prohibition mentioned 
          in the hadeeth referred to writing ahaadeeth on the same page as Qur’aan, 
          lest they become mixed and thus the reader would be confused when looking 
          at this page. And Allaah knows best. 
The hadeeth 
          of Abu Shaah was narrated by al-Bukhaari from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah 
          be pleased with him), who said: ‘When Allaah granted His Prophet 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) victory over Makkah, he 
          stood before the people and praised and glorified Allaah, then he said: 
          “Allaah protected Makkah from the elephant and has given authority to 
          His Messenger and the believers over it, so fighting was forbidden for 
          anyone before me, and was made permissible for me for part of a day, 
          and it will not be permissible for anyone after me. Its game should 
          not be chased, its thorny bushes should not be uprooted, and picking 
          up its fallen things is not allowed except for one who makes public 
          announcement for it, and he whose relative is murdered has the option 
          either to accept a compensation for it or to retaliate.” Al-‘Abbas said, 
          “Except Al-Idhkhir (a kind of plant), for we use it in our graves and 
          houses.” The Messenger of Allaah 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Except Al-Idhkhir.” 
          Abu Shaah, a Yemeni, stood up and said, “O Messenger of Allaah! Get 
          it written for me.” The Messenger of Allaah 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Write it for Abu 
          Shaah.”  (al-Luqatah, 2254) 
Ibn Hajar 
          said: What may be understood from the story of Abu Shaah (“Write it 
          for Abu Shaah”) is that the Prophet 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) gave permission for hadeeth 
          to be written down from him. 
This contradicts 
          the hadeeth of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri, which says that the Messenger of 
          Allaah 
          
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, ‘Do not write down 
          anything from me except the Qur’aan.’ (Narrated by Muslim). 
The two 
          may be reconciled by noting that the prohibition applied only to the 
          time when the Qur’aan was being revealed, lest it be confused with something 
          else, and that permission was given at other times; or that the prohibition 
          applied only to writing down things other than Qur’aan with the Qur’aan 
          on one thing, and that permission was given to write them separately; 
          of that the prohibition came first and the permission abrogated that, 
          when there was no longer any fear of confusion. This is most likely 
          to be the case.                                
          
It was 
          said that the prohibition applied only to those whom it was feared would 
          depend on the writing and not memorize things, and that permission was 
          given for those from whom such a thing was not feared. 
The scholars 
          said: a group of the Sahaabah and Taabi’een regarded it as makrooh to 
          write down the hadeeth and they regarded it as mustahabb to learn it 
          from them by heart, as they had learned it. But when people were no 
          longer able to strive so hard (in memorizing) and the scholars feared 
          that knowledge might be lost, they compiled it in books.”