Giving tips to workers and gifts to public servants or scholars

15-3-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. Is it haram to give tips to workers? Is it haram to give gifts to public servants? Is it haram to give gifts to Muslim scholars? May Allaah reward 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. 

What is given to the worker because of his work that he is obliged to do and for which he gets a salary, then this is not permissible for him except with the permission of the employer regardless of whether it is called a tip, a gift, a commission, or anything else, as stated in fataawa 231187 and 239962.

However, if someone who has the right to authorize the employee to take anything from it, such as the employer, gives him permission to do so, then there is nothing wrong with that and it is not forbidden to give it to him.

As regards a gift given to the Muslim scholars and students of knowledge, then there is nothing wrong with that if it is for a correct purpose and not with the intention of influencing the scholar in order to issue a fatwa in favor of the questioner and the like, as the Prophet said, “Exchange gifts and you will love each other.” [Maalik in Al-Muwatta’]

The Prophet also said, “If a shoulder or leg of a sheep was gifted to me, I would accept it.” [Al-Bukhari]

The first hadeeth indicates that exchanging gifts between brothers in Islam is desirable and that this leads to loving each other and removes hatred and envy from their hearts. The second hadeeth indicates that the gift should not be rejected even if it is of little value.

However, the desirability is excluded regarding gifting for a forbidden purpose, like in the case of what is gifted in order to achieve a wrong goal or invalidate a right.

Allaah knows best.