Fasiq

Fasiq ( ''fāsiq'') is an Arabic term referring to someone who violates Islamic law. As a fasiq is considered unreliable, his testimony is not accepted in Islamic courts. The terms ''fasiq'' and ''fisq'' are sometime rendered as "impious", "venial sinner", or "depraved".

Constant committing of minor sins or the major sins that do not require greater punishment, which are described as wickedness Fisq in fiqh terminology, are punished by the judge's discretion, without a certain limit and measure.

In tazir punishments, there is no obligation to prove the crime by witnessing or similar mechanisms.

Origin

''Fasiq'' is derived from the term ''fisq'' (), "breaking the agreement" or "to leave or go out of."

In its original Quranic usage, the term did not have the specific meaning of a violator of laws, and was more broadly associated with ''kufr'' (disbelief). Some theologians have associated fasiq-related behaviour to ''ahl al-hawa'' (people of caprice).Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. "The Approved and Disapproved Varieties of" Ra'y"(Personal Opinion in Islam)." American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 7.1 (1990): 39.

Theological debate

*The jurist Wasil ibn Ata (700–748 CE) submitted that a ''fasiq'' remained a member of Muslim society, so retained rights to life and property though he could not hold a religious position. This opinion set him at odds with Murji'ah jurists who considered a ''fasiq'' to be a ''munafiq'' (hypocrite), and the Kharijites who considered the ''fasiq'' a ''kafir''.
*To the Kharijites "faith without works" was worthless, so one who professed Islam yet sinned was ''fasiq'', and thus a ''kafir''.

Applications

Amongst the terms uses in geopolitics, in the period leading up to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini described the Shah of Iran as ''fasiq''.

See also

*Sharia

References

External links

''ف س ق ''
at The Quranic Arabic Corpus

Arabic words and phrases in Sharia
Islamic terminology
Sharia legal terminology

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