The Quran

113

ما كانَ لِلنَّبِيِّ وَالَّذينَ آمَنوا أَن يَستَغفِروا لِلمُشرِكينَ وَلَو كانوا أُولي قُربىٰ مِن بَعدِ ما تَبَيَّنَ لَهُم أَنَّهُم أَصحابُ الجَحيمِ

Muhammad Asad

IT DOES NOT behove the Prophet and those who have attained to faith to pray that they who ascribed divinity to aught beside God be forgiven [by Him] even though they happened to be [their] near of kin¹ - after it has been made clear unto them that those [dead sinners] are destined for the blazing fire.

As is obvious from the sequence, this prohibition relates to the dead among such sinners - i.e., those who have died without repentance (Zamakhshari, Razi)- and not to those who are still living: for "a prayer for forgiveness in respect of a living [sinner]... amounts to asking God that He grace him with His guidance... and this is permissible" (Manar XI, 60).