Marking An Absent Classmate Present

Question :

My friend sometimes asks me to mark him present on the attendance sheet when he is absent. The sheet is passed around the class and I write down his name for him. Is this a humane service on my part or is it a form of cheating and deception?

Answer:

Indeed, it is a service, but it is a satanic service, which the Shaytan entreats you to perform. There are three things wrong with this act:

1. It is a lie.

2. It involves deceiving those who are in authority.

3. It makes this person who is absent receive his stipend, which is based on his attendance. He thus takes it unlawfully.

Either one of these three reasons suffices to make the act unlawful, an act that you describe as being humane. Humane or kind-hearted acts are not absolutely correct acts: some of them are wrong because they go against the precepts of the Shari'ah. If one of these acts conforms to the Shari'ah it is commendable; whatever doesn't is hateful. In reality, an act that is described as being humane, but in fact goes against the teachings of Islam, is an act that is falsely described. An act that contradicts Islam is a beastly act, that is why Allah Almighty described the disbe- lievers as beasts:
"While those who disbelieve enjoy themselves and eat as cattle cat, and the Fire will be their abode."

And : "They are only like cattle; nay, they are even farther astray from the Path (i.e., even worse than cattle)."

So whatever it is that contradicts the Shari'ah then it is a beastly act, not a humane act.

Source:
Ibn 'Uthaimin
Fatawa Islamiyah, Vol. 8 Pages 120-121

---

Read more: