Is It Islamically Permissible for Students to Ask Others to Mark Them Present When They Are Absent from Class to Maintain Their Attendance?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

Students in universities usually ask other students to mark them present if they are absent from class to maintain their attendance above a mandatory value. Is marking their present permissible Islamically?

Answer

No. This would be lying and assisting others in lying. You should not do it and advise the other party not to do it either. Being too lax with lying leads one to be lax about other sins, and that quality leads to Hellfire.

The teaching of the Prophet (Allah bless him) told us speaking the truth leads to all forms of good, and those actions lead to the Garden. (Bukhari) Do that instead; it’s much better for you.

May Allah make us of those who are true to the core of their beings.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.