Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 26 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:26

وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَٰهِيمُ لِأَبِيهِ وَقَوْمِهِۦٓ إِنَّنِى بَرَآءٌ مِّمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ

“And [mention, O Muḥammad], when Abraham said to his father and his people, "Indeed, I am disassociated from that which you worship”

Saheeh International

Essence

Against the Makkans' 'our fathers', the surah brings their greatest father, who told his own: I am wholly clear of what you worship.

A reflection

Clear as the new moon slips from the sun

Ibrahim does not say innanī barīʾ, I am innocent of what you worship, though that would have been ordinary Arabic. He says innanī barāʾun: I am barāʾ. The commentaries note that barāʾ is a verbal noun used as a description, for intensity. It does not change for dual, plural or feminine. The effect is close to: I am disownment itself.

The root pictures moving away from a thing and parting from it. A sick man who recovers has baraʾa: the illness has let go of him. A debtor is clear of his debt. A hunter's hide, where he sat apart from everyone, was a burʾa. The lexicons give this plainly, and it is established.

Two sources add a lovely detail about the night called al-barāʾ. One lexicon says it is the last night of the month, when the moon slips clear of it. One commentary says it is the first night, named for the moon's separating from the sun. Either way, the picture is of the moon pulling free, and becoming visible precisely by separating.

That is what Ibrahim's sentence does. In a household and a town where everyone worshipped alongside one another, he separates himself completely. And by separating, he becomes visible: a thin bright crescent where before there was only the glare of what everyone did.

Picture a dark evening at the end of a month. Someone on a hilltop scans the western sky and finally sees it, the new crescent, faint and exact. It was always there. It needed to come clear of the sun to be seen.

There is a kind of faith that only becomes visible when it parts from the crowd. Ibrahim's began with one word: barāʾ.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.