{{Short description|Arabic term referring to someone who violates Islamic law}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Islam and iman}}{{Italic title}}{{Usul al-fiqh}}
'''''Fasiq''''' ({{Langx|ar|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.<ref name="Khadduri2001">{{cite book|author=Majid Khadduri|title=The Islamic Conception of Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=td3XttHLGsEC&pg=PA149|access-date=17 November 2012|date=28 November 2001|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-6974-7|pages=149–}}</ref> The terms ''fasiq'' and ''fisq'' are sometime rendered as "impious",<ref name="Khadduri2001"/> "venial sinner",<ref name="Khadduri2001"/> or "depraved".<ref name="Iṣlāhī2007">{{cite book|author=Amīn Ahsan Iṣlāhī|title=Tafsir of Surah al-Fātihan and Surah al-Baqarah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVAeEovCXB4C&pg=PA149|access-date=17 November 2012|year=2007|publisher=The Other Press|isbn=978-983-9154-88-7|page=149}}</ref>
Constant committing of minor sins or the major sins that do not require greater punishment, which are described as wickedness in ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence) 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.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Ertuğrul Gazi Tuncay |title=İslam Hukukunda Sınırı Belirlenmemiş Cezalar |journal=İslam Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi |year=2017 |issue=3 |pages=82–99 |language=tr |url=http://www.islambilimleri.com/Makaleler/274962294_4.%20s%c4%b1n%c4%b1r%c4%b1%20belirsiz%20cezalar.pdf |archive-date=21 April 2018 |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421105835/http://www.islambilimleri.com/Makaleler/274962294_4.%20s%c4%b1n%c4%b1r%c4%b1%20belirsiz%20cezalar.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Origin== ''Fasiq'' is derived from the term ''fisq'' ({{Langx|ar|فسق}}), "breaking the agreement"<ref name="Ahmed1987">{{cite book|author=Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed|title=An Easy Way to Understanding Qur'an 2 vols|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=917v_NwC_JUC&pg=RA1-PA37|access-date=17 November 2012|date=1 March 1987|publisher=IQRA International Educational Foundation|isbn=978-0-911119-34-3|pages=1–}}</ref> or "to leave or go out of".<ref name="Iṣlāhī2007"/>
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").<ref name="Gieling1999"/> Some theologians have associated ''fasiq''-related behaviour to ''ahl al-hawa'' ("people of caprice").<ref>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.</ref>
==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''.<ref name="Waines2003">{{cite book|author=David Waines|title=An Introduction to Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYxZ0QpKBGsC&pg=PA105|access-date=17 November 2012|date=6 November 2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-53906-7|pages=105–}}</ref>
==Applications== In the period leading up to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini described Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as ''fasiq''.<ref name="Gieling1999">{{cite book|author=Saskia Gieling|title=Religion and War in Revolutionary Iran|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-PzWeSjRH0QC&pg=PA87|access-date=17 November 2012|date=3 December 1999|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-407-8|pages=87–}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Islam }} *''Sharia'' *''Munafiq'' *''Kafir'' *Glossary of Islam *Outline of Islam *Index of Islam-related articles {{Clear}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=fsq ''ف س ق''] at The Quranic Arabic Corpus
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Category:Sharia terminology Category:Sin in Islam