—meaning the unbelievers. This is confirmed by His words: “Whenever they try to leave it, they will be driven back into it, and it will be said to them, ‘Taste the punishment of the Fire that you used to deny’” (al-Sajdah 32:20).

A disobedient Muslim, however, is likewise called a fāsiq, yet his fisq does not cast him out of Islam. Allah the Exalted says, “Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to bring four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes and never again accept their testimony. Such people are the fāsiqūn” (al-Nūr 24:4). He also says, “Whoever undertakes the pilgrimage during these months must abstain from sexual talk, wickedness (fisq), and argument during ḥajj” (al-Baqarah 2:197). The scholars explain that the fisq mentioned here refers to sins (1).

3 – Ḍalāl (misguidance): ḍalāl is to swerve from the straight path; it is the opposite of guidance. Allah says, “Whoever is guided is guided only for his own soul, and whoever goes astray goes astray only against it” (al-Isrāʾ 17:15).