114 Preface وَما كانَ استِغفارُ إِبراهيمَ لِأَبيهِ إِلّا عَن مَوعِدَةٍ وَعَدَها إِيّاهُ فَلَمّا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ أَنَّهُ عَدُوٌّ لِلَّهِ تَبَرَّأَ مِنهُ ۚ إِنَّ إِبراهيمَ لَأَوّاهٌ حَليمٌYusuf AliAnd Abraham prayed for his father?s forgiveness only because of a promise he had made to him.1 But when it became clear to him that he was an enemy to God, he dissociated himself from him: for Abraham was most tender-hearted, forbearing.2Abraham and his unbelieving father are referred to in 6:74. Apparently when Abraham was convinced that the conditions mentioned in the last note applied to his father, he gave up praying for him, as the physical bond was cut off by the spiritual hostility. For the promise to pray for his father, see 19:47, (see also n. 5413 to 60:4).Abraham was loyal and tender-hearted, and bore with much that he disapproved, being in this a prototype of al Muṣṭafā, and it must have gone against his grain to cut off relations in that way. But it would obviously be wrong for a human being to entreat God for mercy on people who had finally rejected God.