FISQ - فسق ‎

 

Sin. Immorality. Wickedness. Lewdness and debauchery. Not obeying the commands of Allah by being rebellious towards Him. Deviating from as-sirât al-mustaqîm.

As a Sharî’ah term: the one who commits fisq is called a fâsiq.

There are three degrees of fisq defined in the Sharî’ah:

1: Sinning occasionally while knowing and accepting that, that sin is ugly.

2: Being fond of sinning.

3: Sinning openly and freely by denying the ugliness of it. This third degree is the degree of kufr; a person at this degree is called mutajahir bi’l fisq. According to ahl al-Sunnah wa’l Jamâ’ah, a fâsiq can still hold some attributes of a mu’min unless he falls into the third degree.

 

Mutajahir bi’l fisq. That is, he is not ashamed of evil but rather takes pride in the sins he commits; he finds pleasure in his dhulm, without being embarrassed, he sins in an evident fashion.

The Twenty-Second Letter/Conclusion

 

“This elucidates and spells out [what] fisq [consists of], for fisq is a renunciation of Haqq and to exceed the limits and quit the hard shell. Fisq is either ifrât or tafrît in the three quwwas of al-aqliyyah, al-ghadhabiyyah and ash-shahawiyyah1 . And ifrât and tafrît lead to rebellion in the face of the evidences that are like the Ilahî covenants (al-'uhûd) in fitrah. They also lead to sickness in personal life; the first attribute [in the above âyah] indicates this. So too they incite rebellion in the face of social life and break the bonds and laws of society. The second attribute indicates this. They also cause corruption and revolution, which spoil the order of the earth, as indicated by the third attribute. Yes, when fâsiq’s quwwa al-aqliyyah exceeds the bounds of moderation the depraved person breaks the bonds of the aqâid and smashes their strong shell, that is, eternal life. And when his quwwa al-ghadhabiyyah oversteps the mark he smashes the shell of social life. And when his quwwa ash-shahawiyyah exceeds the limits and he follows his desires, compassion for his fellow humans vanishes from his heart and he corrupts the people and makes difficulties for them in whatever he becomes involved in, and causes harm to the human race and spoils the order of the earth.” Signs of Miraculousness ( 232 )