What is the criterion for bribery? And some examples of it.

The questioner : Regarding bribery, if you could clarify it for us well, based on, for example, a person working in construction who is entrusted with a task and gives ten dinars, is this considered bribery or not? May Allah reward you with good?

The Shaykh : If we know the definition of bribery, it may enable us to know the details of incidents related to bribery, or at least it will make it easier for us to answer this specific question. Bribery is "paying money to establish a falsehood or to nullify a right." If this money is not paid to establish a right or to realize a falsehood, then it is not bribery. In that case, we can understand many of the questions that people face in this time, when, for example, one of them is afflicted by an official who holds onto a transaction document. He keeps it, and although the transaction usually takes a certain amount of time between people and the departments, he, for some reason, holds the transaction with him and wants a bribe. So, whenever the owner of the transaction follows up with him, he delays him, and finally it becomes clear to him that he wants a gift, so he gave him a gift and he handed over the transaction. Is this money paid to this official a bribe? Let us apply the previous rule: bribery is everything given to nullify a right or to establish a falsehood. Here, this condition does not appear at all; rather, this money was paid to reach his suppressed right. So, judge other cases by this analogy. Now, returning to the form of your question, is this question or the scenario you presented in your question of this type, or of another type? Now, the matter requires some detail. The municipality, without a doubt, has established a system for buildings, and it is supposed that this system is for the benefit of the people. Therefore, every individual in the people must adhere to this system that was imposed on him regarding that construction. If it occurs to him to implement a private opinion of his in his construction, and he knows that in doing so he is violating his country's system, and he gives money to the official in the municipality who is responsible for supervising buildings and implementing the prevailing laws, and so on, so that he will look the other way, he gives him money. This is considered bribery here. And the opposite is if he is like the first one, meaning he wants to prevent him from implementing the same plan in one of its aspects, which the municipality had approved, but he wants to frustrate him by preventing him once, twice, and three times, until what? He diverts him from it with money? Then this money is like the previous scenario; it is a bribe for the one who receives it, but it is not a bribe for the one who gives it. Is that clear?

The questioner : Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh : So, this is the rule that we must know first, and then, secondly, we must be very free from following desires. So we say, for example, "This system is not reasonable." It is not enough for an individual from among the people, first, and the person with the desire, second, to judge with his mind, no matter how much he relies on it, regarding the system that was established by people who are supposed to be knowledgeable specialists, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, it is supposed that they intended the benefit of the people with it, otherwise it would become chaos in the method of construction, as we see in old buildings. You see the alley, something is missing and something is sticking out, and so on. So, this is the answer to your question, and hopefully it is clear, if Allah wills.