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Is it permissible to hack and delete social media accounts of users who publish images that violate Islamic Sharia, in order to forbid evil, taking into account the threat of reporting this action?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Contemporary scholars have differed on the ruling regarding hacking malicious websites with the aim of preventing their corruption. Some have permitted it as a form of Hisbah (enjoining good and forbidding evil), while others have prohibited it due to potential harms. Despite a leaning towards permissibility, a Muslim should avoid situations of fitna (temptation/strife) and instead focus on clarifying the truth and inviting to good. Malicious websites are numerous and cannot be comprehensively addressed, and hacking them may lead to harms such as reports (to authorities). Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Shibl mentioned that the ruling revolves around the principles of achieving benefits and warding off harms, and that often, it is preferable not to proceed with hacking and destruction, as it exposes the Muslim to the fitna of doubts and desires, wastes time, and carries the risk of accountability and punishment.

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

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