He said: Peace be upon you. It is a farewell and parting greeting, like His saying, "To us are our deeds, and to you are your deeds. Peace be upon you; we do not seek the ignorant." And His saying, "And when the ignorant address them, they say, 'Peace.'" This is evidence for the permissibility of parting from the advised one in this state. It may also be that he prayed for his safety to win him over. Do you not see that he promised him forgiveness? If you say: How could it be permissible for him to seek forgiveness for the disbeliever and promise him? [Mahrud said: "If you say, why did he not seek forgiveness for his father while he was a disbeliever... etc." Ahmad said: "This is a manifestation of the Mu'tazilah, spreading from the sparks of the false principle of good and evil. The truth is that reason has no place to rule by the ruling of Allah, the Most High, before the legislation comes regarding it. Then Al-Zamakhshari did not fulfill this, for he made reason allow seeking forgiveness, and made the law a barrier to it. This cannot be imagined according to their destroyed principle, just as it cannot be imagined for the law to come with something that contradicts reason in matters of divinity. Yes, the law may rule with what reason does not show disagreement with. As for what reason shows disagreement with, no."] What is that? I said: They intended the condition of repentance from disbelief, just as the legal commands and prohibitions are directed at disbelievers, and the intention is the condition of faith, just as the one in a state of ritual impurity and the poor are commanded to pray and give zakat, and the intention is the condition of ablution and the minimum amount.

And they said: He only sought forgiveness for him with his saying, "And forgive my father; indeed, he was among the astray," because he promised him that he would believe.

They cited as evidence His saying, "And the seeking of forgiveness of Ibrahim for his father was only by a promise he had made to him." And one might say: What prevented seeking forgiveness for the disbeliever is only the hearing, as for the rational matter, it does not reject it. It is permissible that the promise of seeking forgiveness and fulfilling it came before the hearing, based on the rational matter. What indicates its correctness is His saying, "Except for the saying of Ibrahim to his father, 'I will surely seek forgiveness for you.'" If it were conditioned on faith, it would not be strange and would not be excluded from what was obligatory in the example. And as for "by a promise he had made to him," the one who promised is Ibrahim, not Azar, meaning: He did not say, "And forgive my father" except by his saying, "I will surely seek forgiveness for you," and the reading of Hamad supports this narration: He promised his father. And Allah knows best.

Hafi: The one who is generous in kindness and compassion. He was generous to him and was treated kindly by him. And I will part from you: He meant by parting to migrate to Sham. The intended meaning of supplication is worship, for it is among them and from its means. And from it is his saying, blessings and peace be upon him, "Supplication is worship." [Narrated by Abu Dawood and the rest of the authors of the Sunnah, Ibn Hibban, and Al-Hakim from the narration of Al-Nu'man ibn Bashir. And narrated by Ahmad, Ishaq, Ibn Abi Shaiba, Abu Ya'la, Al-Bazzar, Al-Tabarani, Ibn Abi Hatim, and Al-Tabari from his narration, and narrated by Ibn Mardawayh from the narration of Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib, may Allah be pleased with both of them.] And it is indicated by His saying, "So when he had parted from them and what they worshipped besides Allah." And it may be intended the supplication that Allah mentioned in Surah Ash-Shu'ara. He hinted at their misfortune by the supplication of their gods in His saying, "Perhaps I will not be in the supplication of my Lord unhappy," with humility before Allah in the word "perhaps" and what is in it of self-effacement.