Paying bribe to avoid injustice

23-12-2010 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamualikum. i live in Bangladesh.Here you cannot get any drivers license without giving bribe(seriously there is noway), also if u dont give income tax officer bribe, income tax office will charge you more income tax than u are required to give. So in these cases what should we do? Give them bribe or what? Please answer this Question as soon as possible. Thank You.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
The forbidden bribery is the one by which one does injustice or blocks justice, as regards what a person has to pay to get a right, or to avoid an injustice or harm, then this is not forbidden bribery for him; rather, this bribery is forbidden for the one who takes it. 
Therefore, it is permissible for you to pay bribery to those people in order to get your right or repel harm off you if you have no other alternative.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 83777 and 85946.
Allaah Knows best.