And it is read: 'uswah' and 'iswah'. It is the name of the one who is taken as an example, meaning that there was among them a good and pleasing way to be followed and to take his trace. This is their saying to the disbelievers of their people, as they confronted them with enmity and brandished the stick against them. They showed hatred and aversion, and they declared that the reason for their enmity and hatred is nothing but their disbelief in Allah. As long as this reason exists, enmity remains. Even if they remove it and believe in Allah alone, enmity will turn into loyalty, hatred into love, and aversion into affection. Thus, they expressed pure sincerity. The meaning of 'We have disbelieved in you and in what you worship besides Allah' is: we do not regard you or your deities as anything of importance to us.

If you say: What does his saying 'except the saying of Ibrahim' exclude? I say: It excludes the saying 'a good example', for he meant by the good example: their saying which they are obliged to follow and take as a tradition to emulate. If you say:

If his saying 'I will certainly ask forgiveness for you' is excluded from the saying which is a good example, then what about his saying 'And I have no power over you from Allah of anything', which is not worthy of exclusion? Do you not see his saying 'Say, who has any power from Allah over anything'? I say: He intended to exclude the entirety of his saying to his father, and the intention is towards the promise of asking forgiveness for him, and what follows is based on it and follows it, as if he said: I will ask forgiveness for you, and what is within my capacity is only asking forgiveness. If you say: What is the connection of his saying 'Our Lord, in You we have placed our trust'? I say: It is connected to what precedes the exclusion, and it is part of the good example. It is also possible that the meaning is: Say, 'Our Lord', a command from Allah, the Exalted, to the believers to say it, and a teaching from Him to them, completing what He has instructed them regarding cutting ties between them and the disbelievers, and emulating Ibrahim and his people in disavowing them, and a reminder to turn to Allah and seek refuge in Him from the trial of the people of disbelief, and to seek forgiveness for what they have neglected. And it is read: 'baraa' as partners, and 'baraa' as in 'zurf'. And 'baraa' is on the substitution of the vowel from the broken form, like 'rakhāl' and 'rubāb'. And 'baraa' is on the description of the source. And 'baraa' and 'barā' are like 'ẓamā' and 'ẓamā'.