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Is it permissible to use a website that offers paid educational courses for free without the owners' permission, knowing that I do not contribute to the dissemination or sale of the content, and is it permissible for me to give it to someone else?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a person knows or strongly believes that materials are stolen, he is not permitted to browse them or benefit from them. Furthermore, he is not permitted to enter the website if it specializes in publishing such materials, lest he be an aid to its owners in their sin and encourage them in their transgression. Some scholars, however, permit benefiting from such materials for personal use, without commercial gain or trade. As Ibn 'Uthaymin said: "What I believe is that if a person copies it for himself only, there is no harm. But if he copies it for trade, then this is not permissible, because it harms others." It is safer for a person regarding his faith to avoid that.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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