Receiving help during driving test

13-11-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

I have a question. Background information: In a driving test (in my country), the student's driving teacher sits next to him in the car, and the tester sits behind the student (on the right side). Following case: Let us assume that before a test, the teacher says to the student that he will help him during the test through secret hand signs in the case that the student makes a mistake. The student says that he does not want those signs (he wants to pass the test in an honest way). Then during the test, the teacher still does those signs (not too often, but a few times). The signs are given in a way that the student cannot overlook it, so he does not look at the signs intentionally. The student passes the test but now has a bad feeling about it. Question: May the student keep the driver's license if he strongly believes that he can drive safely?

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Answer:

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. 

When the teacher helps his student as such during the driving test in violation of the rules and regulations of the test, it constitutes cheating and a breach of trust.

As for the student, if he was not willing to receive such help and did not seek it, then he bears no sin for that, especially given that he clearly stated that he did not want the teacher's help and signs.

In any case, there is no harm on the student in the case mentioned in the question in keeping the driving license that he obtained.

Allah knows best.