Ali bin Rabia reported,
Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, seated me behind him on his mount and rode out to the outskirts of Kufa. Then he raised his head toward the sky and said, "There is no god but You, glory be to You, I have indeed been among the wrongdoers" [Anbiya 21:87], so forgive me.Then he turned to me and laughed, and said, "Will you not ask me why I laughed?"I said, "Why did you laugh, Commander of the Faithful?"He said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ once seated me behind him on his mount and rode out with me to the lava plain of Madinah. Then he raised his head toward the sky and said, 'There is no god but You, glory be to You, I have indeed been among the wrongdoers', so forgive me. Then he turned to me and laughed, and said, 'Will you not ask me why I laughed?'I said, 'Why did you laugh, Messenger of Allah?'He said, 'I laughed because my Lord laughed, marveling at His servant, knowing as he does that none but Him forgives sins.'"
Azami 378
Hasanعن علي بن ربيعة قال
أردفني علي رضوان الله عليه خلفه، ثم خرج إلى ظهر الكوفة، ثم رفع رأسه إلى السماء، فقال: {لا إله إلا أنت سبحانك إني كنت من الظالمين} [سورة الأنبياء: ٨٧] فاغفر لي. قال: ثم التفت إلي فضحك، فقال: ألا تسألني مم ضحكت؟ قال: قلت: مم ضحكت يا أمير المؤمنين؟ قال: أردفني رسول الله ﷺ خلفه، ثم خرج بي إلى حرة المدينة، ثم رفع رأسه إلى السماء، فقال: {لا إله إلا أنت سبحانك إني كنت من الظالمين} فاغفر لي. ثم التفت إلي فضحك. فقال: ألا تسألني مم ضحكت؟ قال: قلت: مم ضحكت يا رسول الله؟ قال: ضحكت من ضحك ربي وتعجبه من عبده؛ أنه يعلم أنه لا يغفر الذنوب غيره.
No references are available.
Ibn Khuzayma reported it in Tawhid (465), Ajurri in Sharia (642), Tabarani in Duaa (777), and Bayhaqi in Asma wa Sifat (980), all of them through various routes from Ismail bin Abdul-Malik, from Ali bin Rabia, who said, and then he mentioned it. Its chain is hasan because of the discussion surrounding Ismail bin Abdul-Malik, who is Ibn Abu Sufayr (with a plain sin and fa). Abu Hatim, Abu Dawud, and Nasai criticized him, while Bukhari, Ibn Main, Ibn Adi, and others considered him acceptable.He is not, however, the sole narrator of this report, for Minhal bin Amr corroborated him. Hakim reported it through his route (2/98) and said, "Sahih according to the criterion of Muslim." I say, Minhal bin Amr is al-Asadi, their freedman, from Kufa, and is among the men of Bukhari, as the Hafiz indicated in Taqrib, without indicating that he is among the men of Muslim.Among the other narrators who corroborated this is what Abu Ishaq Sabi reported. Abu Dawud (2602), Tirmidhi (3446), Imam Ahmad (753), Ajurri in Sharia (645), and Bayhaqi in Asma wa Sifat (981) all reported it through his route, and Ibn Hibban (2697) and Hakim (2/99) both graded it sahih, all of them through various routes from Abu Ishaq, from Ali bin Rabia, who mentioned something similar. Tirmidhi said, "Hasan sahih."I say, Abu Ishaq was a mudallis, and he practiced tadlis in this very chain, as Daraqutni clarified in his Ilal (4/61), saying, "Abu Ishaq did not hear this hadith from Ali bin Rabia. This is clarified by what Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi reported, from Shuayb, who said, I said to Abu Ishaq, did you hear it from Ali bin Rabia? He said, Yunus bin Khabab narrated it to me, from a man, from him. This hadith was also narrated by Shuayb bin Safwan from Yunus bin Khabab, from Shaqiq bin Uqba al-Asadi, from Ali bin Rabia. Minhal bin Amr and Ismail bin Abdul-Malik bin Abu Sufayr also narrated it from Ali bin Rabia. So it comes, through Abu Ishaq's narration, as a mursal report, and the best of these chains in terms of its isnad is the hadith of Minhal bin Amr, from Ali bin Rabia." This is the end of Daraqutni's statement.Ajurri, after listing the hadiths about laughter, said, "We believe in all these sunnahs, and we do not ask how regarding them. Those who transmitted these sunnahs are the very same people who transmitted to us the sunnahs concerning purification, prayer, zakat, fasting, Hajj, jihad, and all the other rulings of what is lawful and unlawful. The scholars accepted these reports from them in the best possible manner. No one rejects these sunnahs except one who follows the way of the Mutazilah. So whoever opposes them, or rejects them, or says, 'How?', then accuse him and beware of him." Sharia (2/1068).