conform to what they describe and follow it. They correspond to knowledge, belief, and judgment that likewise follow their objects. Performative utterances, such as commands, prohibitions, and permissions, give rise to the matters spoken of—what is commanded, prohibited, or permitted—and are a cause of their existence or nonexistence. They resemble knowledge and belief that are themselves followed by action: this is practical judgment.

Once these two types are understood, some people call knowledge, belief, judgment, and declarative speech that follow their objects “the study of fundamentals,” “the fundamentals of religion,” “speculative theology,” “the greater jurisprudence,” and other similar names, although their intended meanings and terminological conventions differ.

They call the other type “the study of subsidiary matters,” “the subsidiary matters of religion,” “the study of jurisprudence and religious law,” and similar names. This terminology is used by many later scholars of jurisprudence and speculative theology.

Others use “the fundamentals of religion” to designate everything upon which the revealed laws agree and which is neither abrogated nor changed, whether theoretical or practical, and whether belonging to the first category or the second. Thus, they include worshipping Allah alone, loving Him, fearing Him, and similar matters among the fundamentals of religion, while they may classify some matters of belief conveyed through declarative statements among its subsidiary matters. They also use the term “religious law” to encompass both beliefs and actions, and so forth. This terminology predominates among the scholars of hadith and Sufism and is also adopted by the leading jurists and a group of speculative theologians.