Fasiq

Fasiq

Fasiq

Arabic term referring to someone who violates Islamic law

Fasiq (Arabic: فاسق 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.[1] The terms fasiq and fisq are sometime rendered as "impious",[1] "venial sinner",[1] or "depraved".[2]

Constant committing of minor sins or the major sins that do not require greater punishment, which are described as wickedness 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.[3]

Origin

Fasiq is derived from the term fisq (Arabic: فسق), "breaking the agreement"[4] or "to leave or go out of."[2]

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).[5] Some theologians have associated fasiq-related behaviour to ahl al-hawa (people of caprice).[6]

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.[7]

Applications

In the period leading up to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini described the Shah of Iran as fasiq.[5]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Majid Khadduri (28 November 2001). The Islamic Conception of Justice. JHU Press. pp. 149–. ISBN 978-0-8018-6974-7. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  2. [2]
    Amīn Ahsan Iṣlāhī (2007). Tafsir of Surah al-Fātihan and Surah al-Baqarah. The Other Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-983-9154-88-7. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  3. [3]
    Ertuğrul Gazi Tuncay (2017). "İslam Hukukunda Sınırı Belirlenmemiş Cezalar" (PDF). İslam Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi (in Turkish) (3): 82–99.
  4. [4]
    Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed (1 March 1987). An Easy Way to Understanding Qur'an 2 vols. IQRA International Educational Foundation. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-911119-34-3. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  5. [5]
    Saskia Gieling (3 December 1999). Religion and War in Revolutionary Iran. I.B.Tauris. pp. 87–. ISBN 978-1-86064-407-8. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  6. [6]
    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.
  7. [7]
    David Waines (6 November 2003). An Introduction to Islam. Cambridge University Press. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-0-521-53906-7. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
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