they are concomitant; hence the declarative form (1) is often employed to convey a request, just as it is used (1) in supplication, in expressions such as ghafara Allāhu li-fulān—“may Allah forgive so-and-so”—and yaghfiru Allāhu lahu—“may Allah forgive him.” It likewise appears in the mode of command, as in: wa’l-muṭallaqātu yatarabbaṣna (2) (3) “Divorced women shall wait….” This occurs far more frequently than the use of the imperative form for pure information, as is said—if that, in fact, belongs to this category—concerning the verse, qul man kāna fī al-ḍalālati falyamdud lahu al-Raḥmānu maddā (4) “Say: whoever is in error, let the Most Merciful prolong his respite,” and the ḥadīth, “If you feel no shame, then do as you wish.” (5)

The reason is that, in general, the two meanings are inseparable. Thus, when the declarative form is employed for a request, it is really being used (6) for what the request entails, and that entailment—because of the strength of the demand and the will behind it—is treated as though it were an accomplished, reportable fact. This turns the utterance into an emphatic request, which is why such wording abounds in earnest supplications; and this is the most eloquent style of speech. (7)

By contrast, when the declarative form is used for a purely imperative context, the matter at hand is a request that necessarily involves knowledge, the very substance of an informative statement. If the utterance yields nothing but the sense of information, it has been stripped of its essential meaning—the request—thereby nullifying it and leaving nothing of its original force. This is because the knowledge that entails request and will is a conception