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Fatwa CenterWants to buy a fake certificate because his M.Sc exam was marked wrongly
Question
Assalamu alaikum.My friend is a Maths teacher.But he failed Msc.Maths purely because of University not awarding him mark properly.Now he conducts classes and even his students have passed Msc.But now time is not on his side to study as he is married with 2 children and his job is from early morning to evening.Since that is his only income he cannot quit job to study.So he is asking since he failed for no reason of his own can he make a fake pass certificate?It is very easy here to get it as genuine.His name will be registered in a not so well known university and from there they will issue him original pass certificate if an amount is given.Is there any Shariah evidence for this or is it un Islamic?
Jazakhallah khair.
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 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is not permissible for your friend to forge an academic certificate even if he considers himself as being entitled to it and deserving of it.
The fact that he was wronged (when he failed his exam) because he was not awarded marks properly and the like does not make it permissible for him to do that forbidden act. However, if the university which you described as not being famous will award him a certificate after passing its exams, or because he meets the conditions required for getting its certificate, then it is permissible for him to take that certificate from it as there is no forgery in this case because your friend will hand out to the concerned authorities a certificate which he obtained according to the curriculum and the rules of the university that issued the certificate.
However, if the case is that he pays an amount of money to the mentioned university just to register his name in it and then they will give him a certificate saying that he studied there or that he passed a given exam while in reality he did not, then this is considered forgery and it is forbidden. For more benefit on the ruling of forging certificates in order to work with it, please refer to Fataawa 84658 and 96435.
Allaah Knows best.
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