LessonsThe Imperative: Form, Basic Meaning, Rhetorical Uses and TimingQuiz

جَالِسِ الْحَسَنَ أَوِ ابْنَ سِيرِينَ
Keep company with al-Ḥasan or Ibn Sīrīn.

This illustrates ibāḥah, permission to choose between acceptable options. The speaker is not necessarily requiring simultaneous companionship with both scholars, nor imposing an obligation to meet one of them.

The particle aw marks alternatives. The rhetorical point is authorization or the removal of restraint. A different context could turn the same construction into a directive, so the intent must be inferred from the position in which it is spoken.

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Permission rather than obligation

The Imperative: Form, Basic Meaning, Rhetorical Uses and Timing

جَالِسِ الْحَسَنَ أَوِ ابْنَ سِيرِينَ
Keep company with al-Ḥasan or Ibn Sīrīn.

This illustrates ibāḥah, permission to choose between acceptable options. The speaker is not necessarily requiring simultaneous companionship with both scholars, nor imposing an obligation to meet one of them.

The particle aw marks alternatives. The rhetorical point is authorization or the removal of restraint. A different context could turn the same construction into a directive, so the intent must be inferred from the position in which it is spoken.