You, A and two other people B and C who are not your friends but part of your local Muslim community whom you met just in this class collaborated on an assignment which was supposed to be done individually.
You, A did the whole thing and B and C copied from you.
The Professor found out. He called you and told you you would all be suspended for one semester. He has only called you right now and has not called B and C. This is your only meeting where you can provide him with the true story.
If you tell the prof you provided the solution to the problem, your punishment might be less than B and C but B and C’s punishment might become worse. Right now the prof thinks all of you worked together on it which is less bad than you doing it and B and C just copying off you.
Would you tell the Professor that you were the one who provided the solution to B and C?
When A, B and C cheated, even if A provided the answers, after all it was a joint decision to cheat was it not, and A provided the answers willingly. If B and C themselves tell the Professor that A gave them the answers, that’s another thing, but as A I would never ever tell that I was the one who gave the answers.
In your first post, it was not clear that A willingly allowed them to ‘cheat’. The Professor should have laid the ground rules more clearly in the beginning so each knows that copying from someone is not permissible. Now, if these two are affirmative, and they are caught cheating, then all should suffer. Cheaters, saaray ke saary.
As far as I am concerned.. na tau cheating karna sahi hai, na hi cheating ko chupaana sahi hai. Both are wrong, and doing both is a double whammy. Cheating and then lying (by ommission) on top of it. Double saaza milni chahiyay.
Faisal bhai yes, A knew very well that letting B and C copy the work is wrong, but out of typical murawwat coz after all B and C were part of the local community A let them. So yes A knew she/he was letting B and C do something wrong.
Faisal bhai isn't it now too late and dishonorable for A to say who played what role in the crime? A should have thought about this before letting B and C copy?
Well, lets say a crime is already committed (cheating in a term paper is a minor example... another extreme example is murder)... there is nothing that can be done to reverse the crime. How is hiding the crime and protecting your partners become a nobel deed? Infact, if someone comes clean, cooperates with the authorities, as we all know, that is really deemed a more honorable course of action. This is what a law-abiding and civil society continuously tells us and expects from us (unless ofcoure you follow the Mafia's code of Omega or something).
Faisal bhai, at this point, the only reason A would want to tell the professor that B and C copied was to save her/his own skin. But this would land B and C in more trouble than they already are.
Right now the Professor is under the impression that A, B and C did it together and has not asked neither does he plan to ask, 'Who solved the question originally', and A, B and C are headed for equal punishment as of now.
As I said before.. all of them are cheaters, so all of them should be punished. If A is asked specifically about this and decides to stay quiet than not only is s/he a cheater by allowing ppl to copy, but is also a liar. S/he may get equal punishment from the professor, but likely will get more punishment later on. Anyone who lies (by ommission or commission) is really commiting two crimes now. If B and C lie, they will be get their due punishment as well. Each to his/her own.
Edit: I know its probably not the answer you are looking for, but unfortunately, thats how I look at it. Now, here is a for you. Hopefully someone else will come in shortly and will agree with you.
hehe irem ur so cute, I kinda agree with u but cant A talk to B n C n see wat they would do..we had a similar situation here expect for B n C were caught n they told the prof they copied from A!!!
this "A B & C" is very confusing. But anyway, I would tell professor the truth. I don't care who will get more punishment because I definatley wouldn't wanna get suspended for helping OTHER people. I've learned my lessons the hard ways, therefore there would be no mercy from my side.
i was so confused with the A, B and C's that Faisal bhai's post lost me abt the middle of the page :D
Anyways, irem, what is wrong is wrong yaar. As suroor said, naqal kay lie bhi akal ki zaroorat hoti hai. So, if you are going to copy something from someone, B and C, should change the answers around a little bit. :-p And the rest, if I was A, I would mention it to B and C and see what their next step is going to be. What would you do, if they went in to the prof and told him "they" did it and A copied from them?A ki to chutii hogayi na!!!
Next time PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use some shmuck names instead of alphabets. Or better yet, use greek letters (the math major in me just loves that) :D
Honor? I don’t see any honor Honor in cheating? or helping out your friends? Sorry for the words I’ll use but in my opinion, this is no honor. This is plain stupidity that you take blame of others on you. I used to be like the situation that you posted, help out my friends and if we got caught, I would take their blame. But after taking the punishment that THEY were supposed to take, they wouldn’t even be sorry to me or say thanks or anything. Instead they would talk to others how stupid he was that he took our punishment. That’s when it became a big nono to me.
Hmmm. Honor in not ditching people you'd entered into an act with ... I don't know ... I think if A chooses to tell it'd be kinda selfish ... ? Its not abt B and C appreciating A, its about A doing the right and honorable thing regardless of the reaction from B and C ...
noooooo I could never do that.
for you. Hopefully someone else will come in shortly and will agree with you. 
Honor in cheating? or helping out your friends? Sorry for the words I’ll use but in my opinion, this is no honor. This is plain stupidity that you take blame of others on you. I used to be like the situation that you posted, help out my friends and if we got caught, I would take their blame. But after taking the punishment that THEY were supposed to take, they wouldn’t even be sorry to me or say thanks or anything. Instead they would talk to others how stupid he was that he took our punishment. That’s when it became a big nono to me.