A Muslim can have no religious scruples to eat with a Christian, as long as the food eaten is of a lawful kind. Saiyid Aḥmad K͟hān Bahādur, C.S.I., has written a treatise proving that Muḥammadans can eat with the Ahl-i-Kitāb, namely, Jews or Christians. The Muḥammadans of India, whilst they will eat food cooked by idolatrous Hindūs, refuse to touch that cooked either by Native or European Christians; and they often refuse to allow Christians to draw water from the public wells, although Hindūs are permitted to do so. Such objections arise solely from jealousy of race, and an unfriendly feeling towards the ruling power. In Afghanistan and Persia, no such objections exist; and no doubt much evil has been caused by Government allowing Hindūstānī Muslims to create a religious custom which has no foundation whatever, except that of national hatred to their English conquerors. [[EATING].]
FORBIDDEN FRUIT, The. Mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ii. 33]: “And we (God) said, ‘O Adam, dwell thou and thy wife in Paradise and eat therefrom amply as you wish; but do not draw near this tree’ (shajarah).”
Concerning this tree, the Commentators have various opinions. Ḥusain says some say it was a fig tree, or a vine, but most people think it was a grain of wheat (ḥint̤ah) from a wheat stalk. [[ADAM], [FALL].]
FORGIVENESS. [[PARDON], [ʿAFU].]
FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. Enjoined in the Qurʾān in the following words ([Sūrah xlii. 38]): “Let the recompense of evil be only a like evil—but he who forgiveth and maketh peace, shall find his reward for it from God; verily He loveth not those who act unjustly. And there shall be no way open (i.e. no blame) against those who, after being wronged, avenge themselves.… Whoso beareth wrongs and forgiveth—this is a bounden duty.”
FORNICATION. Arabic zināʾ (زناء). The word zināʾ includes both fornication with an unmarried person, and adultery with a married person. [[ADULTERY].]
The sin of fornication must be established, as in the case of adultery, either by proofs or by confession.
To establish it by proof, four witnesses are required, and if any person bring an accusation against a woman of chaste reputation and fail to establish it, he must be punished with eighty stripes. [[QAZF].]
When a person for conscience sake confesses the sin of fornication, the confession must be repeated four times at four different appearances before a qāẓī, and the person confessing must be very exact and particular as to the circumstances, so that there can be no mistake. A self-accused person may also retract the confession at any period before, or during, the infliction of the punishment, and the retractation must be accepted.
The punishment for fornication is one hundred stripes (or fifty for a slave). The scourging to be inflicted upon a man standing and upon a woman sitting; and the woman is not to be stripped. It should be done with moderation, with a strap or whip, which has no knots upon it, and the stripes should be given not all upon the same part of the body. [[DIRRAH].]