of the desired object; it is not knowledge of whether it has, or has not, come to pass. Hence, when an expression is employed to report (1) the occurrence or non-occurrence of that desired matter, it is being used for something that lies outside both its meaning and its necessary implications.

For this reason, certain scholars of rigorous inquiry have affirmed: “The imperative form has never been used as a statement of fact, for there is no textual proof for such usage, and sound analogy rejects it, since it represents (2) an application of the wording to something that is neither entailed by its meaning nor necessitated by it—something wholly foreign to it.”

With regard to the verse and the ḥadīth that have been cited (3), they are not intended as mere information. The verse stands upon its apparent sense: whoever is astray is, in fact, the one for whom Allah is petitioned and invoked to prolong the punishment, even though—glorified be He—it is He who is speaking, requesting and supplicating on His own behalf, just as He does in the supplication that constitutes His own prayer [and His curse] (4).

So He says: “Indeed, Allah and His angels send prayers upon the Prophet” (5); and likewise: “It is He who sends prayers upon you, and His angels as well” (6). His prayer, exalted be He, encompasses both His praise and His supplication. Thus, for a petitioner to ask something of himself is conceivable for both Creator and creature, exactly as a human being may command his own soul, as He says: “Surely the soul is ever inclined to evil” (7).

Along the same lines one may cite His words: “Whenever a surah is sent down, they look at one another, [asking], ‘Is anyone watching you?’ Then they turn away—Allah has turned their hearts away because they are a people who do not…"