Forged Papers for Visa: Job Earnings Haram?

26 September, 2019
Q As-salamu `alaykum, dear scholar. One of my relative brothers, who is married with four kids, doesn't have a permanent job and now is planning to go to Japan in 3 months business visa. Even to obtain this 3 months visa he has to forge documents, etc. Once he arrives in Japan, he is planning to find a job and overstay there. My question is: whatever the hard job he does, will the earnings be haram (unlawful) for him and his family to consume? Jazak Allah kairan.

Answer

Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

Islam forbids all kinds of forgery, deceit, cheating, and lying. So, your brother should resort to lawful ways to earn his living, so as to gain Allah’s blessings  on his money and family.


Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:

Islam does not allow us to forge documents in order to get visa or jobs. That is not a permissible way of doing this. Forgery, deceit, cheating, lying, etc. are all heinous sins in Islam.

Your relative should trust in Allah and stick to lawful ways of earning a living.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “If you were to trust in Allah, as you should, He would provide for you as He feeds brides; see how they fly out of their nests at dawn, and return satiated at dusk!” (Ahmad and At-Tirmidhi)

So there is always a lawful way of earning a living.

Allah Almighty knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.