NAME: HIRA NOOR EOIF-MBA (M)

BRIBERY: A Haram Financial Transaction

a) QURANIC VERSES ON BRIBERY:AYAH I- “O ye who believe! Let there be witnesses between you when death draweth nigh unto one of you, at the time of bequest—two witnesses, just men from among you, or two others from another tribe in case ye are campaigning in the land and the calamity of death befall you. Ye shall empanel them both after the prayer, and, if ye doubt, they shall be made to swear by Allah (saying) : We will not take a bribe, even though it were (on behalf of) a near kinsman nor will we hide the testimony of Allah, for then indeed we should be of the sinful.”1

EXPLANATION: In this ayah Allah SWT has ordered Muslims to make their will in front of two witnesses before the death reaches them. The witnesses must not take bribe and if they are suspected then they are to swear by Allah that we haven’t taken bribe and if we are lying then we are committing sin. He has guided Muslims clearly and unambiguously in this ayah that the witnesses taking bribery to change the will are sinful and hence Allah SWT has strictly restricted bribe according to the above mentioned ayah.

AYAH II- "And do not eat up your property among yourselves for vanities, nor use it as bait for the judges, with intent that ye may eat up wrongfully and knowingly a little of (other) people's property.”2

EXPLANATION:

This ayah vividly reveals Allah’s command for one of the most happening type of injustice by giving bribes to judges. It says don’t take each other’s property or wealth by injustice and don’t give bribes to judges in order to have decision which you desire. It will be deliberately doing one of the the biggest sin i.e. to usurp someone’s right.

b) AHADEETH ON BRIBERY:HADITH I:Abu Musa Muhammad ibn Muthanna reported from Abu Aamir Aqadiy, from Abu Zib, from his uncle, Harith ibn Abdur Rahman, from Abu Salamah (RA) from Abdullah ibn Amri that :“The Prophet (SAW) cursed both the receiver and the giver of bribe.”3

EXPLANATION:In this hadeeth, it has been clearly mentioned that not only the taker but the giver of bribe is a sinner and prophet PBUH has cursed them both. Both are equally responsible for the sin.

1 Al-Qur’an 5 : 1062Al-Qur’an, 2:1883 Tirmidhi 1342, Abu Dawud 3580, Ibn e Majah 2313, Ahmed 7003

NAME: HIRA NOOR EOIF-MBA (M)

HADITH II:“On the authority of Abu Hurairah: The Prophet (peace be on him) said, "Allah's curse is on the one who offers the bribe and on the judge who accepts it."4

EXPLANATION:

In this hadeeth, prophet PBUH has pointed towards the specific type of bribery given to judges as mentioned in Surah Baqarah, Ayah 188. Prophet PBUH says that Allah will curse the Qadhi (judge) taking bribery and usurping rights of others and so the giver of bribery because everybody has to pay some price for his sins.

c) HARMS OF BRIBERY:Bribery has many adverse effects not only on the individuals involved but on the whole economy. Following are some of the major harms:

1) EASY TICKET TO HELL: As Allah SWT has cursed the person involved in bribery, He will not spare him on the Day of Judgment because by bribery, a person commits to types of sin; usurping the right of n innocent and not doing what Allah has commanded. For Muslims especially, bribery will ease the path to hell. 

2) OBLITERATE FAIRNESS IN SOCIETY:Bribery removes fairness from the society. It promotes injustice in the society. Protection of wealth, dignity, life and self cannot be insured. All can be bought even the human values. 

3) PRODUCING AN INCOMPETENT SOCIETY: When everything could be bought by money, no one will strive for getting things. Admissions, jobs, promotions when all will be done by bribery then no one will work hard. There will be no importance of educated and qualified people. As a result, the competent, skilful and knowledgeable people will decline as skills have no more meaning. The skill to bribe will be of most importance. 

4) SELFISH SOCIETY: People will become selfish. Individuals will only think about themselves without the negative effects on the victims in the short term and to the country in the long-run. 

4 Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih.

NAME: HIRA NOOR EOIF-MBA (M)

5)PRODUCING POOR QUALITY WORK: Because the people will be hired just due to bribery and not due to the skill and their intellect, the organizations will not give productive result. Now a days , due to globalization, there is tough competitions and in order to be successful one has to be highly qualified and efficient but due to bribery inefficient people will be given high designations which will affect the productivity.

6) INCREASE IN MANAGEMENT COST: New entrepreneurs will face expansion problems due to cost of bribery. 7) SLOW RESPONSE AND MANAGEMENT: People will delay a task to wait for higher bribes. Approvals may take longer if the executives at each level desire bribes before processing an application etc. 

8) SNOWBALL EFFECT: This sin as it passes to other person will involve in it more and more people and hence getting bigger and bigger like a snowball. The person, who takes bribes, enjoys it and feeds his family with it. Eventually the whole family may be addicted to easy money. Allah s.w.t. said:  "In their hearts is a disease (of doubt and hypocrisy) and Allah has increased their disease. A painful torment is theirs because they used to tell lies."5 Hence, to those who feed his family with bribery, without sincere taubat, Allah s.w.t. may plant the opportunity for his children to follow his footsteps that will eventually annihilate the family. 

9) IMBALANCE IN THE DITRIBUTION OF WEALTH:The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. The poor will face enormous difficulties in improving their lives since they have no ‘connections', and not enough money.

10) FAITHLESS SOCIETY (SHIRK):Buying everything by money will create greed of money in every person. Everyone will strive to get more money by any means because they know that they can get everything by money. Poor will wish to have it and will think that I can solve all my problems if I get money hence, diverting from Allah to money (shirk) whenever he is in need. The rich will think as if he is the god of his fate as he gets everything by the power of money. Thus creating a faithless society.

5 Al-Qur’an. Al-Baqarah:10