Assalaamu alaykum, Shaykh. I want to get training on some computer applications, but most of the computer institutions use pirated software to teach. Is it permissible to take lessons at these institutions?

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

The fact that these institutions use pirated software programs is an infringement of other people's rights, and this is prohibited. Please refer to our fatwa 327097. Whoever knows of their use of these programs should wisely and kindly advise them. Tameem Ad-Daari, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “The religion is (founded on the exchange of sincere) advice.” We said, “To whom?” He said, “To Allah, His Book, His Messenger, to the leaders of the Muslims, and to their common folk.” [Muslim]

As for studying in such institutions through these pirated programs, we could not find any statement of contemporary scholars in this regard. Some scholars held that it is allowed to copy original software without permission of their rightful owner if it is done for personal use only. We hope that this applies to the students at such institutions, and the sin is borne by the one who violated the copyrights.

Ibn ‘Uthaymeen wrote about copying CDs without permission of the rightful owner, “We believe that if a person wants to make a copy for himself only (for personal use), then there is nothing wrong in that. But if he copies it to trade (and make profit), it is impermissible because it incurs harm on others.”

Allah knows best.