Question
Reference number: 104482 | Miscellaneous | Sept. 21, 2022
I am a university student who works hard to prepare summaries. I spend many hours preparing these summaries of my courses. If a classmate asks me to get a copy, but I refuse, am I considered sinful taking into account that this work is my own personal effort?
Answer
Praise Be to Allah and Peace Be Upon His Messenger.
Initially, the summaries and the notes that you prepare or take are your own personal efforts; thus, none has the right to take them unless you give them a permission. Moreover, keeping these summaries for yourself is not selfishness, and it is not similar to the deed of keeping knowledge to oneself or preventing it from others. In other words, your classmates have the same resources of education as yours, so you are not preventing them from getting the knowledge. Certainly, you are not sinful. If they depend on your efforts, they will learn how to be dependent on others and lazy; therefore, the consequences will be negative rather than positive ones. On the other hand, it is not wrong if you assist your classmate whom you find needs a help. You can explain things to her. This is considered thankful cooperation that Allah urges us to do.