Discussion on one who pays money to recover his right or to remove an injustice from himself. Is this considered a bribe?

The questioner: Well, my lord, is it not the principle that when I am subjected to an injustice, and I see injustice befalling us daily, that we should work to remove the injustice without committing what is evil?

The Shaykh: Where is the evil?

The questioner: For example, this police officer...

The Shaykh: No, where is the evil in our topic if we say that a bribe is establishing a falsehood or negating a right? Where is the evil?

The questioner: Paying something that is not this police officer's right to take, one dinar instead of five dinars, this is not his right.

The Shaykh: But it is your right to pay five dinars.

The questioner: This matter is easy; the dispute occurred; if the solution to the matter in Islam is a judge, for example, a market inspector (muhtasib) who is competent, we bring him and he resolves the problem between me and...

The Shaykh: Are we, Professor, being imaginative or realistic? Where is the market inspector? Please, let us finish the discussion with the doctor and then listen to the others.The questioner: Our problem is that we face this reality daily.

The Shaykh: No harm, my brother...

The questioner: And add to this example many other matters.

The Shaykh: That is, the many matters either involve removing an injustice from yourself, or negating someone else's right; and as we said, or the exact opposite. So suppose you negated a falsehood, you negated a falsehood ten times a day, what is wrong with that? If you negated a falsehood, not established a falsehood or negated a right; the issue of repeating a thing is not looked at in terms of its repetition, but in terms of the reality of that thing: is it permissible or not? If it is permissible, the first time is permissible, the second time is permissible, the tenth time is permissible, and so on; and if it is not permissible, the ruling returns. Absolutely; so now there is no problem at all with this, and the issue of the market inspector, my brother, is discussed in a society other than this one which has set aside the implementation of the Shari'ah.

The questioner: It is not an error to imagine what we aim for if...?

The Shaykh: Correct, and as I said and we agreed with you, we must work for what we aspire to; but until we are able to do that, what do we do with these details? In these injustices, we try to minimize them.

The questioner: By Allah, I see that I should bear the injustice rather than pay something of this kind, even if I paid ten dinars...

The Shaykh: Welcome and peace be upon you and Allah's mercy, welcome, Doctor, and peace be upon you, praise be to Allah, we are well... May Allah love you, may Allah gather us upon His love...

The Shaykh: ...be patient with me... be patient with me... can you remind me what you said last, you?

The questioner: Since I am among those who support the opinion that bribery is forbidden, and regardless of the incident, whether there is injustice to others or not, or establishing a right that falls upon me or upon others in this manner, in my opinion, I support the opinion that it is forbidden.

The Shaykh: That is, you support remaining wronged?

The questioner: No, I work to solve the problem radically by another way, and as for the details, I remain patient with them and bear them.

The Shaykh: Another way? You don't have one between filing a lawsuit, if you can file a lawsuit, you lose first of all more than what this person will take unjustly and oppressively, and then you get your right or not, and so on; we want to address the reality, nevertheless, it seems to me that you are not convinced, and no harm if you say you are not convinced, but I want to be clear on how I am to agree with you. We say the scholars of language said that bribery is giving money to negate a right or establish a falsehood; so if you are not convinced by this definition, you remain with your opinion, that is your affair; but if you are convinced by this opinion, this obligates you to retract that opinion.

The questioner: Yes, correct, based on the issue that the texts came with the Shari'ah definition, not the linguistic one...

The Shaykh: Glory be to Allah, where is the Shari'ah definition?

The questioner: I mean, did Allah curse the one who gives the bribe and the one who takes it?

The questioner: And the one who goes between them.

The Shaykh: "And the one who goes between them" is an addition that is not authentic in the hadith and is not for us in this context. What does mean? Who is the one who goes between them?

The questioner: The one who goes between them is the one who gives the money.

Another questioner : Why?

The Shaykh: May Allah be pleased with you, he gives the money why? It comes to you, we said after Maghrib to Doctor Essam, bring a question, so he answered me, I said to him, may Allah bless you, this system is deficient because it will force me to ask a second question, and every question whose answer requires the questioner to ask a second question means this question's answer was incomplete; so I am telling you now, who is the one who goes between them mentioned in the hadith?

The questioner: He is any person...

Another questioner: Not from you, you want the expression to be Shari'ah-based.

The Shaykh: We are not telling you in language you say this and you say any person, language says not any person.

The questioner: For example, I am a person who pays money or pays something to an official whose duty is to perform a work that is originally his duty to perform, this moment falls into the same meaning, and it is possible if you don't know a text or definition, but this is what I understood: that I pay something to an official so that he performs a service for me, or so that he refrains from performing a punishment upon me which is his duty to impose.

The Shaykh: This agrees with me, may Allah bless you, allow me, well, exactly, so did we differ or agree?

The questioner: But the exception here...

The Shaykh: Let us take your example of this employee, an employee in one of the departments, your duty now is to give him your passport, for example, and he stamps it for you, he tells you today and tomorrow and today and tomorrow, so that you give him a bribe, this bribe he eats is forbidden, correct, because his duty is to perform this job.

The questioner : Correct.

The Shaykh: Good, you are on your long-term method and I need the patience of Ayub (peace be upon him), you go and come and go and come and don't give him a dinar, why? Because this is a bribe, my brother, this is not a bribe, this is money given to establish the right, you have a right with him and it is that he stamps your passports; please, my brother, and you have kept us waiting and may Allah reward you with good.

The questioner: The hadith might delay another transaction for you, this same employee delays a transaction.

The Shaykh: No, no, this example I brought to you from you and to you, remember the example we said about "the rush and it became the first" you returned to it, we suppose now there is no queue, he went to the employee and said come.

The questioner: The employee, I agree with the doctor's opinion, because this may give those of weak character from the police and others from the hands of employees to get accustomed to this matter and it increases in the hands of people, and this time it became a period...

The Shaykh: This is an oath by Allah, and I rarely take an oath; I am amazed at you, doctors and intellectuals, that you are imaginative; man, one of you is willing to go and come, and this employee plays with him so that he doesn't give him a dinar, first, is one of you willing to do this imagination that you are deciding, that he bought it; this is first an imagination, second contrary to the Shari'ah.

The questioner: I want to give you an example, for example, you go to Egypt, any transaction or any place, the tip (bakshish) is present there, meaning they are accustomed to it, meaning I entered you, a nurse, and I serve you, if you don't give me a tip or gratuity, I will not serve you in the way it should be.

The Shaykh: This brings an example, and this brings an example, what is the criterion, what is the rule? Do you invalidate entering Egypt because you don't want to give a tip? What are you talking about, people, by Allah, your command is strange, although the Shari'ah is expansive for you, the Shari'ah tells you that bribery is giving money to negate a right or establish a falsehood, so you want to travel from here to Egypt and you took the visas they call legal today, when you arrived there, the one you called the tip stood in your way, good, do you turn back so that you don't pay an Egyptian pound? No, by Allah, you do not do this, and I wish, I wish this payment was forbidden in the Shari'ah to be with you and say may Allah bless you if you turned back; but why are you narrowing a matter in which Allah has been expansive? Like that Bedouin who entered the mosque and due to his ignorance of the Shari'ah uncovered his garment and urinated in the mosque, the Companions rushed at him, "you who have no manners, who do not feel shame, this is the House of Allah," and so on, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), , leave him, do not restrain him, leave him until his clothes are ruined by the urine.

The questioner: O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad.

The Shaykh : Leave him alone, do not stop him. After he had relieved himself, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "These mosques were not built for anything of urination or defecation; they were built for prayer and the remembrance of Allah." The man performed the ablution and prayed with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). After he had prayed, he said—and here is the point: "O Allah, have mercy on me and on Muhammad, and do not let anyone share in our company." ... What did he (peace and blessings be upon him) say to him? , O people, you have made a narrow thing of the mercy of Allah. Allah has made it broad for you. When bribery is defined as giving money to nullify a right or to establish a falsehood, then you come and give me an example, and the doctor gives an example. This example is ... That person's job is to process transactions, and he does not process them except with a bribe. And this person's job is to get you into Egypt, and he does not let you in except with a tip. So, do you turn back? I wish we had enough mindfulness of Allah and righteousness such that we reach this friction with the forbidden and say no. .