1. wāw: as a coordinating conjunction it signifies that the two conjuncts share the same ruling; it neither requires a particular order nor precludes it unless other evidence indicates otherwise.
2. fāʾ: when used conjunctively it conveys both the sharing of the ruling and the sense of sequence and immediacy; when used causally it provides the reason.
3. The prepositional lām: among its meanings are causation, ownership, and permissibility.
4. The preposition ʿalā: among its meanings is obligation.

Categories of Speech
Speech, in terms of whether it can be described as true or false, is divided into two kinds: declarative (khabar) and performative (inshāʾ).

1. A declarative statement is that which, by its very nature, can be characterized as either true or false.
   • By saying “that which can be described as true or false” we have excluded performatives, because their import is not something reported that could be judged true or false.
   • By adding “by its very nature” we have excluded declarations whose truth, or whose falsity, is impossible on account of the one making the statement. From this angle, declarations fall into three categories:
   – The first: that which cannot possibly be false, such as the statements of Allah and the authentic reports from His Messenger.
   – The second: that which cannot possibly be true, namely a report about something impossible—either legally, like the claim of prophethood after the Prophet ﷺ, or rationally, like asserting that two opposites, such as motion and rest, exist in the same entity at the same time.