FALSE WITNESS. The Imām Abū Ḥanīfah is of opinion that a false witness must be publicly stigmatised, but not chastised with blows; but the Imāms ash-Shāfiʿī, Yūsuf, and Muḥammad are of opinion that he should be scourged and imprisoned.
In the Law of Moses, a false witness was punished with the punishment of the offence it sought to establish. [Deut. xx. 19]: “Thou shalt do unto him as he had thought to do unto his brother.” [[EVIDENCE].]
FANĀʾ (فناء). Extinction. The last stage in the Ṣūfīistic journey. [[SUFIISM].]
FAQĪH (فقيه). A Muḥammadan lawyer or theologian. The term is still retained in Spanish as alfaqui. [[FIQH].]
FAQĪR (فقير). Persian darwesh. The Arabic word faqīr signifies “poor”; but it is used in the sense of being in need of mercy, and poor in the sight of God, rather than in need of worldly assistance. Darwesh is a Persian word, derived from dar, “a door,” i.e. those who beg from door to door. The terms are generally used for those who lead a religious life. Religious faqīrs are divided into two great classes, the ba sharʿ (with the law), or those who govern their conduct according to the principles of Islām; and the be sharʿ (without the law), or those who do not rule their lives according to the principles of any religious creed, although they call themselves Musulmāns. The former are called sālik, or travellers on the pathway (t̤arīqah) to heaven; and the latter are either āzād (free), or majẕūb (abstracted). The sālik embrace the various religious orders who perform the ẕikrs, described in the article [ZIKR].
The Majẕūb faqīrs are totally absorbed in religious reverie. The Āzād shave their beards, whiskers, moustachios, eye-brows, and eye-lashes, and lead lives of celibacy.
The Āzād and Majẕūb faqīrs can scarcely be said to be Muḥammadans, as they do not say the regular prayers or observe the ordinances of Islām, so that a description of their various sects does not fall within the limits of this work. The Sālik faqīrs are divided into very numerous orders; but their chief difference consists in their silsilah, or chain of succession, from their great teachers, the K͟halīfahs Abū Bakr and ʿAlī, who are said to have been the founders of the religious order of faqīrs.
It is impossible to become acquainted with all the rules and ceremonies of the numerous orders of faqīrs; for, like those of the Freemasons and other secret societies, they are not divulged to the uninitiated.
The doctrines of the darwesh orders are those of the Ṣūfī mystics, and their religious ceremonies consist of exercises called ẕikrs, or “recitals.” [[ZIKR], [SUFIISM].]
M. D’Ohsson, in his celebrated work on the Ottoman Empire, traces the origin of the order of faqīrs to the time of Muḥammad himself:—