Using a fake bank account to get an English passport
11-11-2012 | IslamWeb
Question:
My friend who is studying in England wants to inquire about some methods for acquiring the nationality of England, that whether it will be legal accoding to Islamic Shariah. 1. Acquiring nationality through Paper Marriage. 2. Acquiring nationality through the process called Inter-Tenure. It is a process where you invest your money in England for legal business. And after running it for three years legally (paying all the taxes), the Government will issue him an English passport. Now he does not possess the required amount of money which is needed to be in his account for starting business. He is asking that will it be halal if he pays a lawyer in England and the lawyer provides him with the bank statement statement showing that he possess the required amount of money needed for the business. So the nationality acquired through this process will be legal according to Islam? Note: The business he want to run is halal. And acquiring nationality is not the sole purpose of running business. He is actually interested in it. I know about the matter of settling in Non Muslims countries but he has some issues because of which he cant stay in his home country.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Getting fake bank statements is considered an act of forgery and in principle this is forbidden. It is also forbidden to resort to such methods unless there is a valid reason, as we discussed in Fataawa 118926 and 86193.
The need of your friend to settle down in the country that you mentioned could be met by him residing there without acquiring citizenship. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 86405.
In addition, acquiring citizenship of this country leads to some Islamic prohibitions which are not permissible to commit without necessity as we clarified in Fatwa 82552.
Allaah Knows best.