Gift Versus Bribery
Question:
Salam brother,
I am in quite a dilemma regarding this issue of gift vs. bribery. For instance, my father works in the military and is a very high ranking official. The military every now and then buys machinery, weapons and ammunition from local and foreign companies. After the deal of buying a particular item is signed the companies usually provide the top officials of the military with gifts, for example laptops, ipones, android phones etc. Is this bribery? Surely, if these gifts were provided before the deal was signed it would have clearly affected the judgement of the military officers and hence could have been termed as bribery.
However, in this case the gifts are provided only after the deal is signed and so the process couldn't be affected by these gifts. However, it can be deduced that for the future the officials might be tempted to buy from this company because they give these gifts. So, is getting gifts AFTER the deal is done bribery?
Similarly, sometimes shop owners, to build a business relation, feed us snacks and drinks and at times gives a bit extra than for what we paid for saying he/she gave it out of goodwill, is this bribery too?
Answer:
Salam,
Bribery normally refers to the situation where a person pays another person money or does him a favour to receive a special (often illegal) attention.
It is not practically helpful to decide whether the cases you mentioned are bribery or not. It is more helpful if we simply see if they are religiously acceptable or not. Whether they then can be called bribery or not will be irrelevant.
As for the military situation that you described, two things need to be considered:
1. Is receiving these gifts illegal according to the rules of your country?
2. Could the expectation or the experience of receiving these gifts affect the judgement of the person to the extent that the criteria for purchase changes for him from 'an appropriate purchase' to 'an appropriate gift'?
If number one above is the case then this is definitely not allowed since as a Muslim we need to obey the regulations of the country we are residing in.
If number two above is the case then it will be based on each individual to decide how strong he is. If he knows that his judgement will be affected by these gifts then he has to avoid receiving and accepting them.
The case of the shop owner is a different case. What you mention here is nothing but normal marketing measures to attract more customers. The shop owner is not tempting the customers to do anything immoral or illegal. It is their own (i.e. customers') money and they (i.e. customers) can decide where to spend it. Even if the shop owner pay them some money to keep purchasing from them still this will be totally fine (although perhaps not a wise business strategy!).
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April 2013
Salam brother,
I am in quite a dilemma regarding this issue of gift vs. bribery. For instance, my father works in the military and is a very high ranking official. The military every now and then buys machinery, weapons and ammunition from local and foreign companies. After the deal of buying a particular item is signed the companies usually provide the top officials of the military with gifts, for example laptops, ipones, android phones etc. Is this bribery? Surely, if these gifts were provided before the deal was signed it would have clearly affected the judgement of the military officers and hence could have been termed as bribery.
However, in this case the gifts are provided only after the deal is signed and so the process couldn't be affected by these gifts. However, it can be deduced that for the future the officials might be tempted to buy from this company because they give these gifts. So, is getting gifts AFTER the deal is done bribery?
Similarly, sometimes shop owners, to build a business relation, feed us snacks and drinks and at times gives a bit extra than for what we paid for saying he/she gave it out of goodwill, is this bribery too?
Answer:
Salam,
Bribery normally refers to the situation where a person pays another person money or does him a favour to receive a special (often illegal) attention.
It is not practically helpful to decide whether the cases you mentioned are bribery or not. It is more helpful if we simply see if they are religiously acceptable or not. Whether they then can be called bribery or not will be irrelevant.
As for the military situation that you described, two things need to be considered:
1. Is receiving these gifts illegal according to the rules of your country?
2. Could the expectation or the experience of receiving these gifts affect the judgement of the person to the extent that the criteria for purchase changes for him from 'an appropriate purchase' to 'an appropriate gift'?
If number one above is the case then this is definitely not allowed since as a Muslim we need to obey the regulations of the country we are residing in.
If number two above is the case then it will be based on each individual to decide how strong he is. If he knows that his judgement will be affected by these gifts then he has to avoid receiving and accepting them.
The case of the shop owner is a different case. What you mention here is nothing but normal marketing measures to attract more customers. The shop owner is not tempting the customers to do anything immoral or illegal. It is their own (i.e. customers') money and they (i.e. customers) can decide where to spend it. Even if the shop owner pay them some money to keep purchasing from them still this will be totally fine (although perhaps not a wise business strategy!).
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April 2013
