Maʿānī is organized into eight chapters, each examining one dimension of how expression meets the situation.
1. Aḥwāl al-isnād al-khabarī — forms of declarative predication
2. Aḥwāl al-musnad ilayh — the entity of which something is predicated
3. Aḥwāl al-musnad — the predicate itself
4. Aḥwāl mutaʿallaqāt al-fiʿl — complements attached to verbs
5. Qaṣr — restriction or exclusivity
6. Inshāʾ — non-declarative expression
7. Faṣl wa-waṣl — separation and connection of sentences
8. Ījāz, iṭnāb, musāwāh — brevity, expansion, and proportionate expression
Declarative predication comes first because it provides the groundwork for many later rhetorical distinctions.