This verse seems be an example of the freedom from obligation or “renunciation” mentioned at the beginning of Sūra 9 (vv. 1, 3). The unnamed “prophet” makes a decisive break with the associators ( mushrikūn ), even close relatives, and abandons them to hell. In order to support this approach, the Quran refers to Abraham (v. 114). But it first needs to account for Abraham’s prayers for forgiveness for his idolatrous father (e.g., 14.41, 19.47, 26.86). It argues that Abraham reached a point where he “disowned” his father. The Quran makes a similar argument at 60.4 after commanding the “believers” not to take their enemies for friends (60.1–3). There Abraham says to his people, “We repudiate you.” Yet even then, Abraham appears to keep his promise to ask forgiveness for his father. See “Abraham in the Quran”.