Cybercrime and Digital Fraud from an Islamic Legal Standpoint

• Dr. Mūhāmmād Akrām Rana

  Dean, Minhaj University Lahore

  Author

This research examines the phenomena of cybercrime and digital fraud from the lens of Islamic legal principles, with specific focus on Shariah's response to new challenges of the digital age. Based on the study of Qurʾanic commands, Prophetic sayings, classical jurisprudence, modern fatwas, and statutory laws, this research explains the ethical, social, and legal dimensions of cybercrimes like identity theft, financial fraud, hacking, and spreading false information. Analysis is done using the maqasid al-shariah paradigm—protecting the faith, life, intellect, lineage, and property—to quantify the gravity and extent of cybercrimes. It highlights that even with new technologies employed, the basic moral prohibitions against fraud (gharar), theft (sariqah), and harm (darar) remain strongly entrenched in Islamic jurisprudence. This research promotes the proactive use of Islamic legal thought in national and international cybercrime laws, with an eye toward deterrence, justice, and societal welfare. This paper concludes that Islamic law, when interpretively flexible, offers a robust ethical and legal platform to tackle cybercrime in a globalized information age.

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