The Definition of a Declarative Sentence and the Kalimah of Tawhid

Question

A declarative sentence, nominal or verbal, is one whose speaker may be called truthful or lying. But then the same supposition may arise concerning [ar]لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ[/ar] as well, and a non-Muslim may say that of “la ilaha illa’llah” to the end one may likewise say “true” or “false”.

Answer

Where this definition is given, the commentators also state the following condition: that the utterance in question be taken in abstraction from the particularities of its two sides and from external evidence. If by evidence one side has been determined — as in “The sky is above us and the earth beneath us” — then these are truthful declarative sentences, for by evidence the…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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