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Is it permissible for a person to act as an intermediary between Apple Inc. and the owner of a locked device to help unlock it in exchange for money, even though the device owner can communicate directly with the company? And is it permissible for another person to issue a non-original purchase invoice for the locked device to prove ownership and unlock it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Firstly, there is no harm in using an intermediary to communicate with the company to unlock the device for a known fee; this is a permissible contract of ju'alah (commission/reward).

Secondly, if unlocking the device through communication with the company is only possible by issuing a non-original purchase invoice, this is permissible. This is because it is a lie to secure a right that would otherwise be lost, and it serves a benefit without causing harm to others. Lying is permissible to achieve a praiseworthy objective if it cannot be attained otherwise. It is recommended to use tawriyah (ambiguity/equivocation) in such cases, but if tawriyah is not used, the lie is not forbidden in this situation.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy