Forging income statement to receive free tuition

12-1-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu, I am an Electronics Engineer working with my 1st job from the last 2 years. My graduation as an Engineer consisted of 4years with Rs.30,000/year of the tuition fee. For the 1st and 2nd year of Graduation I had studied free of cost using the fee reimbursement scheme of the government (For families with income less than Rs.1,00,000/year). The income certificate of my father that was generated to avail this scheme was a false certificate. Now that I have started learning about the way of life through islam I have realized that it was not the correct way of getting money for my education. Can you please suggest any solution or compensation to get rid of the mistake(sin)? JazakAllah

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Since you were not eligible for the fee reimbursement scheme and your father forged the income certificate so that you can benefit from the fee exemption, this is impermissible because it involves cheating, deception, and forgery. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: "He who cheats us is not one of us." [Muslim]

Hence, you have to clear yourself of liability from these fees by seeking the pardon of the concerned authority; if it agrees to clear you of liability from that, then there is harm in that; otherwise, you are obliged to reimburse them according to the fees that are normally paid by a student in a similar standing, even if by using indirect means.

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 210100.

Allaah Knows best.