“I am clear of…” declaration (innī barīʾ)
إِنِّى بَرِىٓءٌ
innī barīʾun — “Indeed, I am clear of…”
In the verses given, the declaration innī barīʾun (“I am clear of…”) is a fixed first-person formula of disassociation whose object shifts between the addressees' actions, the addressees themselves, and what they serve or join with God — spoken by one commanded to say it, by Abraham, and by the shayṭān.
The formula consists of the particle inna with a first-person singular pronoun (innī, or innanī in 6:19) followed by the indefinite nominative noun barīʾun, and then a preposition min whose complement varies. In the verses given the complement takes four shapes. It is the addressees' own activity: “I am clear of what you are doing” (26:216, mimma taʿmalūn). It is the addressees themselves: “I am indeed clear of you” (59:16, minka; 8:48, minkum). It is what they serve apart from God: “of what you serve apart from Allah” (60:4, wamimma taʿbudūna). And it is what they join with God: “I am indeed disassociated from what you join (with Him)” (6:78; identically in 6:19, with innanī instead of innī). The speakers also vary: a commanded speaker facing defiance (26:216), Abraham addressing his people after the sun sets (6:78), the same declaration placed in a plural “we” form by Abraham and those with him (60:4, innā buraʾā minkum), and the shayṭān twice — abandoning the human he had urged to conceal the truth (59:16) and abandoning a group he had claimed to ally with, adding “indeed, I see what you do not see; indeed, I fear Allah” (8:48). The formula thus marks a public severing of association, and in 59:16 and 8:48 it is spoken by the shayṭān at the moment he reneges on his own earlier conduct — his urging in 59:16, his claimed alliance in 8:48 — while in 26:216 it is the speaker's response to defiance and in 6:78 his disavowal of what his people join with God.
Where it occurs
- 26:216 The commanded speaker is told to declare the formula if they defy him, with the slot filled by “what you are doing.”
- 59:16 The shayṭān speaks the formula to the human he had urged to conceal the truth, filling the slot with “you” and adding “I indeed fear Allah.”
- 60:4 Abraham and those with him use the plural form of the declaration to their people, filling the slot first with “you” and then with “what you serve apart from Allah.”
- 6:19 The speaker declares the formula with the slot filled by “what you join (with Him),” after stating “He is only one god.”
- 6:78 Abraham, after the sun he had called “my Lord” disappears, addresses his people with the formula, slot filled by “what you join (with Him).”
- 8:48 The shayṭān, having claimed to be an ally, turns back and speaks the formula with the slot filled by “you,” adding “I see what you do not see; I fear Allah.”
All Qur'anic expressions