In some countries banishment is added to the punishment of scourging for fornication, especially if the sin is often repeated, so as to constitute common prostitution.
The law is founded upon the following verse in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxiv. 2–5]:—
“The whore and the whoremonger—scourge each of them with an hundred stripes; and let not compassion keep you from carrying out the sentence of God, if ye believe in God and the last day: And let some of the faithful witness their chastisement.
“The whoremonger shall not marry other than a whore or an idolatress; and the whore shall not marry other than a whoremonger or an idolater. Such alliances are forbidden to the faithful.
“They who defame virtuous women, and bring not four witnesses, scourge them with fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony for ever, for these are perverse persons—
“Save those who afterwards repent and live virtuously; for truly God is Lenient, Merciful!”
The Muḥammadan law differs from Jewish law with regard to fornication; see [Exodus xxii. 16, 17]:—“If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.” [Deut. xxii. 25–29]:—“If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then ye shall bring them out unto the gate of the city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die: the damsel because she cried not, being in the city, and the man because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife; so shalt thou put away evil from among you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die. But unto the damsel shalt thou do nothing: there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death.… If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.”
FORTUNE-TELLING. Arabic kahānah (كهانة). Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥakam relates that he asked the Prophet if it were right to consult fortune-tellers about future events, and he replied, “Since you have embraced Islām, you must not consult them.” [[MAGIC].]
FOSTERAGE. Arabic raẓāʿah, riẓāʿah (رضاعة). According to Abū Ḥanīfah, the period of fosterage is thirty months; but the two disciples, Yūsuf and Muḥammad, hold it to be two years, whilst Zufar maintains that it is three years. Fosterage with respect to the prohibitions attached to it is of two kinds; first, where a woman takes a strange child to nurse, by which all future matrimonial connection between that child and the woman, or her relations within the prohibited degrees, is rendered illegal; secondly, where a woman nurses two children, male and female, upon the same milk, which prohibits any future matrimonial connection between them. For further particulars on this subject, see Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. i. page 187.
FOUNDLING. Arabic laqīt̤ (لقيط). Lit. “That which is picked up.” The person who finds the child is called the multaqit̤. The taking up of a foundling is said to be a laudable and generous act, and where the finder sees that the child’s life is in peril, it is an incumbent religious duty. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 252.)