concerning commands and practice. The first includes knowledge of Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day. It also includes accounts of the prophets and their nations, their ranks in virtue, and the states, attributes, and deeds of the angels. It further includes descriptions of Paradise and Hell, the rewards and punishments attached to deeds, and the circumstances, virtues, and ranks of Allah’s friends and the Companions, among other matters.

This category is sometimes called “the fundamentals of religion” or “the greater creed,” while rational disputation concerning it is called “speculative theology.” It is also called “creeds and beliefs,” “theoretical questions,” “questions concerning reports,” and “the science of unveiling.”

(The second category comprises practical matters involving commands and prohibitions concerning the actions of the limbs and the heart: obligations, prohibitions, recommended acts, disliked acts, and permissible acts. Knowledge and belief may themselves be commanded or forbidden. Thus, insofar as something constitutes knowledge or belief, or a true or false report, it belongs to the first category; insofar as it is commanded or forbidden, it belongs to the second.

An example is the testimony that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Insofar as this testimony is true and corresponds to what it affirms, it belongs to the first category. Insofar as it is an obligatory duty, and through it the person bearing witness becomes a believer deserving reward, whereas without it he becomes a disbeliever whose blood may lawfully be shed and whose property may lawfully be seized, it belongs to the second category.