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Is it permissible, from a Sharia perspective, to benefit from paid computer programs by downloading their serial numbers from illicit websites, without paying their value to the producing companies? And is this considered consuming others' wealth through falsehood, given that most of these companies are Western and non-Muslim, and in light of achieving significant scientific benefit from using these programs?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

These programs are among the private financial rights of their producers, and it is not permissible for anyone to infringe upon this right by copying or downloading them without their permission, whether the owners of the programs are Muslims or disbelievers, or whether the copier is in need of them or not. Therefore, these programs must be purchased or permission must be sought from their owners for their use; otherwise, one must repent to Allah.

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

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