The third: that which may be characterized as either true or false—whether the two possibilities are evenly balanced or one is more probable—such as a person’s report that an absentee has arrived and the like.

2. The performative (inshāʾ) is utterance that, by its very nature, cannot be described as true or false. Under it fall commands and prohibitions, as in His words, “Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him” (Q 4:36). A single utterance can function as both report and performative from two different angles, as in the verbal formulas of contracts such as “I have sold” and “I accept”: insofar as they reveal what is in the mind of the contracting party they are reports, yet insofar as the contract itself is effected through them they are performatives.

Speech may also be cast in the form of a report while the intent is a performative, or vice versa, for a particular rhetorical benefit.

An example of the first is His saying, “Divorced women shall wait by themselves for three periods” (Q 2:228). The verb “shall wait” is phrased as a report, but what is intended is a command; the benefit is to emphasize the act required, portraying it as something already realized, spoken of as one of the women’s attributes.

An example of the reverse is His saying, “Those who disbelieve said to those who believe, ‘Follow our way, and we shall bear your sins’” (Q 29:12). The clause “we shall bear” is cast in the imperative form, whereas what is meant is a report—namely, “we will bear them.” The benefit is to treat what is being reported as though it were a settled, binding obligation.

Literal and figurative usage
Speech, from the standpoint of usage, is divided into literal (ḥaqīqah) and figurative (majāz).

1. The literal is a word used in the very meaning for which it was first coined, such as using “lion” for the predatory animal. By saying “used” we have excluded an abandoned or idle term, for such a term is called neither literal nor figurative.