Cheating in exams, is it allowed in Islam?

Q. Can you please enlighten me on the ruling of cheating in examinations? Is it permissible to cheat in examination so as to succeed? I have not studied well and I am in need of this. Also, what about a person who cheats in the exams and gets a job due to a certificate that he gains by means of cheating?

A. Islam, the true religion of Allah, never allows cheating in any aspect of life. Muslims are people of morals, values, and ethics. Therefore, cheating in exams cannot be justified under any pretext. Muslim students should be distinguished by their honesty, truthfulness, and fairness.

Here, I would like to cite for you the fatwa issued by Sheikh `Atiyya Saqr, former head of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee. The fatwa reads:

“It goes without saying that all kinds and forms of cheating are haram. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has made this clear in the hadith: “He who cheats us does not belong to us.” Any one who cheats commits a sin and he who helps him in cheating also shares in the blame. It is to be stressed that toughness of exams does not justify cheating, for examination is originally meant to distinguish the studious from the lazy; it’s to show how far one has exerted efforts in preparing for the test. It’s not logic, of course, to shower both the diligent and the indolent with accolade of merits. This is injustice. A sound mind never accepts such an unjust equation.

Cheating in examination is one of the things that threaten the society, for it urges the spread of falsehood and forms an attack against truth. It causes total chaos in the society and indicates that some people will have unjustified access to posts and honors.

A person who gets a job that requires a certain degree or certificate which he has gained through cheating should know that the money he gains is haram. He may be from amongst those people who are referred to in the verse that reads: “Think not that those who exult in what they have been given, and love to be praised for what they have not done, think not that they are in safety from the doom. A painful doom is theirs.” (Al `Imran: 188)

If this person has performed some kind of work and exerted efforts that are not closely related to the qualifications, then he is entitled to the wage given to him in return of the efforts. What is beyond this is considered to be haram.

Dr. Ahmad `Abdul-Karim Najeeb, professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Sarajevo and former professor at the Islamic Academy in Zinsta, adds:

“Actually, this is a case in which many of our Muslim youth in the West have got themselves involved. The answer to this can be summarized in the following points:

1- Gaining a degree or a certificate without being really qualified for that degree is a form of cheat, which is totally rejected and prohibited. This is based on the hadith that reads: “He who deceitfully shows that he has something which he really does not have is like a person who puts on garments that do not belong to him and claim that they are his.”

2- In case a Muslim student is subject to some kind of exploitation which puts his rights at stake unless he pays a sum of money, there is no harm on him paying money to get himself out of the matter and to ward off the injustice to which he may be subjected.

3- If a person gets the certificate by means of cheat and then exerts efforts to be qualified for the job, his sin is still there, for he is supposed to be qualified for the job before not after having it. If he is a physician for example, what about the patients who fall a prey to his wrong prescription? As for the money the person gets after exerting efforts to be qualified and being really qualified, such money is not haram. ”

Based on the above fatwas, it becomes evident that cheating in exams is strictly prohibited in Islam. It’s the duty of the Muslim students to steer clear of all forms of cheat, deceit, and dishonesty. By doing so, Allah, Most High, will grant them high success and degrees, both in this world and the world to come.

May Allah guide us all to the straight path!

Almighty Allah knows best.

Important points:

You can pass a test by three ways.

1- Preparing for your test well (and not cheating during the test).

2- Cheating during the test (and you’ve not studied at all for it).

3- Doing both (that is, you’ve studied for it and you cheat too).

Virtues of employing the first strategy, that is, “preparing for your test well (and not cheating)”:

1- Allah will be pleased with you. As a result, He might make your future problems easier for you to deal with, be they exam related or anything else. Plus He might give you happiness and things that you dream about. He might make your life very easy and pleasant.

2- If you pass, you will feel happy inside. If you top, you’ll feel happier. Why? Because you will feel the fruits of your labour paying off, and that is a very good feeling.

3- It will give you confidence in your own ability. This will drive you to study harder for the next test, and this may eventually help you in getting high marks in your final exams. A human always strives to achieve a higher goal, a better quality scenario for him or herself. Hence the “technology” that we see today. Similarly, if you work hard and achieve high scores, you will automatically start to strive to get higher marks in the future.

Vices (negative outcomes) of employing the first strategy:

None. J (Except, of course, that you might fail. But there is a very minimum chance of that happening, as you must have experienced practically.)

Virtues of employing the second strategy, that is, “cheating during the test (and you’ve not studied at all for it)”:

You might pass on the condition that the teachers around you are not so “vigilant” and you end up copying the whole paper from someone else.

Vices of employing the second strategy:

1- You’ll probably fail, because the teachers around you will prevent you from copying the whole paper down from someone else. So the bits and pieces that you will manage to copy down will not be enough to pass you.

2- Allah will not be pleased with you, because He does not like cheating. And you do not want Him to be angry with you at any cost.

Virtues of employing the third strategy, “doing both (that is, you’ve studied for it and you cheat too)”:

You’ll probably pass.

Vices of employing the third strategy:

Allah will not be pleased with you.

Finally:

People say that they are helping others by allowing them to cheat from them, and helping themselves by cheating, when in fact they should know that they are actually involved in wrong and helping others in doing wrong. The Prophet (peace be upon him) forbade this and stated that we should NOT help each other in doing wrong!

If you cheat, you incur the anger of Allah, you risk failing the exam, and you lose confidence in your own ability to pass without assistance. Overall, it’s a “bad” situation. If you fail, it’s a lose lose situation. If you pass, it’s a win lose situation, but the loss is far greater than the win, because the loss in this case is Allah’s favour. In my opinion, if you lose this you’ve lost everything.

If you do not cheat and prepare well for your tests, you earn the happiness of Allah and hence you probably increase your chance of succeeding in many aspects of your life, you almost definitely pass the test and your confidence in your own ability increases immensely and you end up performing better in the future. It’s a win win situation!

Also, I know that cheating in tests seems like a very small thing, but in the eyes of Allah everything is significant, even the action of an ant. Our every action is being documented. If the act of cheating was an insignificant event, why would it be written down by the angels on our shoulders? Wouldn’t Allah have said somewhere in the Quran that He does not care about the small things, that Man should not worry about them?

But on the contrary Allah says in Al-Qamar (The Moon) 54:53:

“…and everything [that man does], be it small or great, is recorded [with Allah].”