Photocopying Pages of Books That One Cannot Borrow from Library

8-2-2023 | IslamWeb

Question:

AssalamuAlaikum. I am a student. In my university, they haven’t issued us ID cards so we can’t issue books from the library yet. We can go and read them there. I wanted to ask whether i can click pictures of few pages from the book or not? Will that be stealing? The library is for students use. Kindly reply fast. May Allah reward you!

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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 is His slave and Messenger.

We do not see any harm, Insha’ Allah, for the student to photocopy what she needs from the pages of those books that she cannot borrow, which is not considered theft or an infringement of copyright.

Noting that the contempory scholars regarding the issue of copyright regarding copying and printing books, tapes, laser discs, and the like, have three opinions in this regard:

First: The Absolute prohibition, whether it is for trading or personal use, and most of the Fiqh Councils agree on that, and that is the view we adopt here in Islamweb.

Second: Absolute permissibility, because it is considered concealing knowledge and limiting its spread and benefit.

Third: Permissibility in personal use, excluding commercial use, because in trading there is an infringement of the copyrights of the issuers of this program.

As long as the matter is related to copying pages until it is possible for you to borrow books from the library, then the matter is easy, Allah willing.

Allah knows best.