الأمر في اللغة: قول القائل لغيره: «افعل».
Linguistically, a command is someone saying to another, “Do it.”
The core idea is requesting an act. Forms such as “uktub” (write), “iqraʾ” (read), and “ijlis” (sit) make an action the object of a request. Their grammatical form alone does not settle the religious ruling in every context.
“Do not write” seeks restraint and therefore belongs to prohibition. “Are you writing?” requests information and is an interrogation, not a command to perform the act.
Identifying the linguistic form is the starting point. Jurisprudence next asks whether the speaker possesses authority to impose the required action.