I am Syrian and the Syrian embassy does not give me a passport, and this will cause me harm, so is it permissible for me to forge the passport?

The questioner : Okay, excuse me, there is another question. Regarding our certificates, but now as Syrians, my brothers and I, for example, the Syrian embassy does not give us passports, and we fear the worst. If we go down to Syria, we will end up in prison. So regarding the passport, it has the same ruling: do not forge it, even if we lose our residency and travel to Syria and end up in prison, is that not the case?

The Shaykh : When we come to the issue of something forbidden that we want to commit, a rule applies: . This issue here differs from the previous one. You are not forced to enter the university because seeking knowledge is a collective obligation. Recently, we were discussing a very sensitive topic, which is entering mixed universities, whether the person entering is a young man or a young woman. Is it permissible? Some issue a ruling of permissibility for the sake of acquiring knowledge. Now we begin our research from this point: Is the knowledge we want to acquire an individual obligation? No, it is a collective obligation. Okay, if you, Zayd, leave off seeking this collective obligation, will you be sinful? No. If you mix with the mixed society in places that are forbidden by the Shari'ah, will you be sinful or not? Yes. So do not approach knowledge that is not obligatory for you in order to commit a sin that you are obligated to avoid. Thus, one issue differs from another. Now, the issue of the passport falls under two rules that are absolutely inseparable, contrary to what many people do, where they take the first and abandon the second, which completes the first. The first is that dire necessities permit the prohibited. Now we ask: Is there a dire necessity for every person to forge a passport? You will agree with me that there is not for every person. So, as we said earlier, like bribery, this and that. Okay, so some people say, "I am forced to forge it." Why? Because I will suffer harm. Allah says: . This rule, the scholars classified it with the phrase: "Dire necessities permit the prohibited." But they did not leave it loose; they placed a condition on it, saying: "The necessity is estimated by its amount." This is from the precision of the jurists' fiqh, based on His saying - the Exalted: ; meaning you eat of the prohibited the amount to which you are compelled. A person in a normal situation naturally differs from one person to another. We say: The average amount of food for a normal person is much less than half a kilogram of grilled meat. In the desert, if one faces death and finds only pork, he does not sit and eat half a kilogram. He eats a few mouthfuls to sustain his body so that he escapes the harm. This is the meaning of their saying: "The necessity is estimated by its amount." So now, the one who says, "I am forced to forge my passport," I say to you: If you took the rule with its condition—that dire necessities permit the prohibited and the necessity is estimated by its amount—and you did not respond to the desires of your self, like this. He faces death and destruction, so he will eat pork, but only in the amount that saves him from death. So if you, Zayd, or you, 'Amr, are like this, I say to you: Forge it. But no, by Allah, I want to see my family, I miss my country, for example, and so on. This is not a dire necessity. It often happens, for example, that a married woman is here, and she is from Syria, or from Egypt, or from any other country, and she has no mahram, so she considers it permissible to travel alone, claiming that she is forced. What is the necessity? By Allah, I want to see my father, I want to see my mother, my brothers, and so on. No. Dire necessities permit the prohibited, and the necessity is estimated by its amount. Especially today, means have been found. In the past, they said that correspondence is half of seeing. Now you talk to your family on this phone. If correspondence is half of seeing, this is three-quarters. Where is the necessity? In any case, may Allah reward you. People today, first: they have no knowledge, second: they follow their desires, so they have gathered all evil. With these guidelines and rules, the Muslim today must live in order to be pleasing to Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He.