What is the ruling on paying a bribe to obtain one’s right?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: There are some people who are lenient regarding bribery, and they say that some scholars have issued a ruling permitting its payment if it is to obtain your brother’s right, or if you are merely defending yourself and have not wronged anyone. He asks: What is the criterion in such a case?
Answer:
They seek out whatever fatwas suit them; they seek out whatever fatwas suit them. I say: Bribery is not permissible due to the generality of the hadith: “May Allah curse the one who gives a bribe and the one who takes it.” As for the one who wants to specify this hadith and say that such and such is excluded from it, there is no specification for the hadith. It is not specified except by a specifier. It is not specified by the statement of a scholar or a jurist. Yes.
He says: There are some people who are lenient regarding bribery, and they say that some scholars have issued a ruling permitting its payment if it is to obtain your brother’s right, or if you are merely defending yourself and have not wronged anyone. He asks: What is the criterion in such a case?
Answer:
They seek out whatever fatwas suit them; they seek out whatever fatwas suit them. I say: Bribery is not permissible due to the generality of the hadith: “May Allah curse the one who gives a bribe and the one who takes it.” As for the one who wants to specify this hadith and say that such and such is excluded from it, there is no specification for the hadith. It is not specified except by a specifier. It is not specified by the statement of a scholar or a jurist. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم دفع الرشوة لأخذ الحق؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.