Is cheating in exams or plagiarising coursework haram?

After the Prophet ﷺ found wet grain hidden beneath the dry in a merchant's pile, he said, "Whoever cheats is not of me" (Sahih Muslim 102), and scholars take the wording as general — it is not restricted to trade, so it covers exams, coursework, plagiarism and falsified qualifications. Allah condemns those who take full measure from people but shortchange them (Quran 83:1–3), and a cheated grade or credential takes a university place, a job or a salary that rightfully belonged to someone else, so the harm passes beyond the cheater. Scholars add that earnings from work one is not genuinely competent to do become doubtful, and in fields such as medicine or engineering the risk to people's lives makes it far graver. Repentance requires abandoning it, sincere regret, and correcting the record where that is possible without causing a greater harm.

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