Bribery, and Its Many Disguises

Rishwah, bribery, is among the most common diseases of the third-world countries, and Muslim nations are said to lead the count: Nigeria first, Pakistan second, Indonesia third, Turkey close behind — with Egypt topping the list of all^* — a disgrace. In a country such as Australia this may be scarcely known: a public servant, an engineer employed by the roads authority, say, or a council inspector for buildings, is paid a full wage for the position he was interviewed for and given. What is ḥalāl for him is that wage, nothing more. But a person may come to him wanting a building permit sped up, and slip five hundred or two hundred dollars into the paperwork passed across; the officer takes it into his pocket without objection, and the job that others wait two weeks, two months, three years for is done that same afternoon, purely because of the extra money received. This is corruption, and that officer does not deserve that money. It is sometimes called merely a hadiyyah, a gift — but this is nonsense: had that public servant stayed at home, doing nothing, unemployed by the council, what chance would he have had of receiving that gift at all? Abusing a position, a status, a job, to demand money beyond what is properly owed, is rushwah, and it takes many, many forms.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said that Allah (swt) curses the one who gives the bribe, the one who takes it, and the one who walks between the two arranging it. Among the purchasing offices of companies, too, this disease has taken hold: a purchasing officer may refuse to award a contract worth millions of dollars until he is bought a new car, though his own salary already runs to eighty or ninety thousand dollars a year — more than enough for his needs — and purchasing officers of this kind grow rich precisely because they are in a position to demand it. What the disbelievers do among themselves is not a Muslim's concern, but among Muslims, asking for or giving anything beyond what is properly deserved is absolutely ḥarām; anything given or taken in excess of what is owed is rushwah.

A hadiyyah, a genuine gift, is a different matter, and rushwah is often disguised as one. In the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), officers were sent to collect zakāt, and some who paid their zakāt would add a further gift on top for the officer collecting it; that officer was not permitted to keep it, because had he not been working in that office for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he would never have received it. Corruption of this kind is one of the greatest diseases afflicting the Muslim ummah today, scarcely avoidable in Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey or Nigeria.