- Permission (ibāḥa). A command often conveys mere permissibility when it is issued after a prior ban, or when it comes in reply to someone who assumes the act to be forbidden.
• Example of a command following a prohibition: “When you have left the state of consecration, then hunt” (Q 5:2). The instruction to hunt here only licenses the act, because it comes after the earlier ban expressed in His words, “while you are in the state of pilgrimage, do not deem hunting game lawful” (Q 5:1).
• Example of a command answering a presumed ban: the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do it, and there is no sin” (1) to those who, during the Farewell Pilgrimage, asked him about performing the festival-day rites of ḥajj in a different order.
- Threat. The command can also serve as a warning, as in the Almighty’s words, “Do whatever you wish; He indeed sees all that you do” (Q 41:40), and, “We have prepared a blazing Fire for the wrongdoers” (Q 18:29). The punishment mentioned immediately after the imperative shows that it is meant as a threat.
The imperative may likewise move from requiring prompt execution to allowing postponement.
An illustration is making up missed fast-days of Ramadan. Although it is commanded, proof shows that the command allows delay. ʿĀʾisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “I would still owe fast-days from Ramadan but could not make them up until Shaʿbān, because I was occupied with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” (2)