is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah; I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

Likewise, the worshipper says:

“Allah is the Greatest. Glory be to my Lord, the Magnificent. Glory be to my Lord, the Most High. Allah hears whoever praises Him. Our Lord, to You belongs all praise. All greetings belong to Allah.”

And the pilgrim reciting the talbiyah says:

“Here I am, O Allah, here I am.”

And there are other similar examples. Thus, all the remembrance that Allah has prescribed consists of complete statements, not an isolated name, whether stated explicitly or represented by a pronoun.

This is what is called a kalimah (utterance) in Arabic usage, as in the Prophet’s words:

“Two utterances are light on the tongue, heavy in the Balance, and beloved to the Most Merciful: ‘Glory and praise be to Allah; glory be to Allah, the Magnificent.’”

And his words:

“The finest utterance spoken by a poet is the saying of Labīd: ‘Indeed, everything apart from Allah is destined to perish.’”

This also includes the words of Allah Most High:

“Grave is the word that comes out of their mouths,”

and the rest of the verse; and His words:

“The word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice.”

In these and similar instances where the term kalimah is used in the Quran and Sunnah—and indeed throughout Arabic speech—it means a complete sentence. Likewise, they used harf (word) to refer to a noun, saying, “This is an unfamiliar harf,” meaning that the noun itself is an unfamiliar word.

Sībawayh divided speech into a noun, a verb, and “a harf that conveys a meaning and is neither a noun nor a verb.” Each of these categories is called a harf, but what distinguishes the third is that it conveys a meaning while being neither a noun nor a verb. He also applied the term harf to the letters of the alphabet, which are names. The term harf encompasses these names and others, as in the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Whoever recites the Quran and recites it correctly will receive, for every letter,