Thread by @PhDniX

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 No it is not! This has been a misunderstanding that has been making the round by some Christian polemicists but it's a misunderstanding of what is going on. Let me try to unpack this: first شر البريئة is not the reading of Ibn Kathīr but of Nāfiʿ.

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 Second: it is true that the word barīʾ means "innocent" or "free". In the feminine it would be barīʾah. šarru l-barīʾah cannot mean "the worst of the innocent". It means "the worst of the innocent woman". Which is clearly nonsensical. But that's not what Nāfiʿ's reading intends.

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 The word bariyyah "creation", together with nabiyy "prophet" are ultimately Aramaic loanwords, which at one point had a hamzah, but even in Aramaic appear to have lost it quite early on. So it went from barīʾah to bariyyah, and nabīʾ to nabiyy.

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 Arab lexicographers recognise the pronounciation with and without hamzah as acceptable (for both words!). Either it was borrowed once in its archaic form and then reborrowed in its innovative form OR (perhaps more likely) they were dialectal forms within Arabic.

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 Nāfiʿ indeed also reads 'prophet' as an-nabīʾ not an-nabiyy. He simply uses the archaic pronunciation al-barīʾah for "creation" rather than the today more popular but innovative al-bariyyah.

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 In that pronunciation it becomes homophonous with "the innocent/free woman", but they are not the same word. They also have different plurals :
barīʾah/bariyyah 'creation' in the plural is barāyā
barīʾah "innocent/free woman" is barīʾāt in the plural.

@LaoshuL @shahanSean @dbru1 Just because they sound the same does not mean they are the same word. Just like nobody would maintain a "bank" of a river is the place where you should deposit your money.
This is a pretty technical grammatical topic. I hope this made sense. If you have any questions let me know