قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌۭ فِىٓ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥٓ إِذْ قَالُوا۟ لِقَوْمِهِمْ إِنَّا بُرَءَٰٓؤُا۟ مِنكُمْ وَمِمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ وَبَدَا بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمُ ٱلْعَدَٰوَةُ وَٱلْبَغْضَآءُ أَبَدًا حَتَّىٰ تُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَحْدَهُۥٓ إِلَّا قَوْلَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ لِأَبِيهِ لَأَسْتَغْفِرَنَّ لَكَ وَمَآ أَمْلِكُ لَكَ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍۢ ۖ رَّبَّنَا عَلَيْكَ تَوَكَّلْنَا وَإِلَيْكَ أَنَبْنَا وَإِلَيْكَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ
There is certainly a good exemplar for you in Abraham and those who were with him, when they said to their own people, ‘Indeed we repudiate you and whatever you worship besides Allah. We disown you, and enmity and hate have appeared between you and us for ever, unless you come to have faith in Allah alone,’ apart from Abraham’s saying to his father, ‘I will surely plead forgiveness for you, though I cannot avail you anything against Allah.’ ‘Our Lord! In You do we put our trust, and to You do we turn penitently, and toward You is the destination.
رَبَّنَا لَا تَجْعَلْنَا فِتْنَةًۭ لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا رَبَّنَآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
Our Lord! Do not make us a test for the faithless, and forgive us. Our Lord! Indeed You are the All-mighty, the All-wise.’
لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِيهِمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌۭ لِّمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَٱلْيَوْمَ ٱلْءَاخِرَ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ
There is certainly a good exemplar for you in them—for those who look forward to Allah and the Last Day—and anyone who refuses to comply [should know that] indeed Allah is the All-sufficient, the All-laudable.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Having banned alliance with the enemies of God, the sura now supplies a prophetic model: Abraham and his followers, who declared to their idolatrous people, "we are quit of you and of what you worship besides God… enmity and hatred have appeared between us for ever, until you believe in God alone" (v.4). One item is carved out as not to be imitated — Abraham's promise to seek forgiveness for his father — and the passage closes on Abraham's own prayer of trust and the plea "make us not a trial (fitna) for the disbelievers" (v.5), before v.6 repeats that this is "a good example for whoever hopes in God and the Last Day."
Tabarsi, Tusi and al-Mizan read the passage in close harmony. All three explain that Abraham's bara'a comprises open dissociation in deed, inward enmity, and its permanence until the idolaters embrace tawhid. All three treat the exception ("save Abraham's saying to his father, I shall ask forgiveness for you") as the one point not to be emulated: Tusi and Tabarsi, citing al-Hasan, explain that Abraham promised this only in hope of his father's belief, disowning him once his enmity to God became clear (al-Hasan: at his father's death); al-Mizan classes it a "disjoined" (munqati') exception — a promise made in hope of repentance, not an act of befriending — and reads Abraham's rider "I have no power to avail you anything against God" as an avowal of the poverty of servanthood before the riches of Lordship. On v.6, Tusi and Tabarsi give the identical reason for the repeated "good example": the second mention makes a fresh point (the example is for the God-fearing who hope in the Last Day), distinct from the first (the example lies in enmity to the disbelievers).
The two narration-sources add distinctive material. Qummi (via Abu al-Jarud from al-Baqir) frames vv.4-7 as a single arc: God ordered disavowal of the disbelievers while they remained such, then held out hope of future affection (v.7) — realized when Mecca converted and the Companions intermarried, the Prophet himself wedding Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan. Bahrani preserves a striking hadith of al-Sadiq on v.5: before Abraham prayed "make us not a fitna," believers were always poor and disbelievers always rich; his prayer caused God to distribute wealth and need among both, so that prosperity would no longer be a snare identifying the two camps. The Enlightening Commentary rounds out the human portrait, noting the ahl al-bayt readings that Imam Husayn and (of Fatima al-Zahra) are themselves called models of this Abrahamic uswa.