Abu Dawud

Benefits and Issues:
Benefit: To give something to a ruler, judge, or official in order to usurp someone else’s right is bribery (rishwah) and is forbidden (haram).

However, if an official is oppressive and even the rights of those entitled are not safe with him, or he demands from people, or one is compelled to give him something, then the original and preferred course is not to give him anything.

And one should leave the matter to Allah and seek a way to be freed from this oppressor.

But if this is not possible, and in a case of severe necessity, one is compelled to give something solely for the sake of obtaining one’s legitimate right,

then one should seek forgiveness (istighfar) abundantly.

For the one who takes, this is certainly bribery (rishwah) and forbidden (haram).

In fact, he is also deserving of punishment for forcing the rightful person into such a situation.

And Allah knows best.

Benefits and Issues:
(1)
The need to give a bribe arises only when a person, despite being on the wrong side, wants to have a decision made in his favor. In this way, the one who gives a bribe deprives the rightful person of his right and also incites the judge to commit a sin. This double sin deprives him of Allah’s mercy.

(2)
The one who takes a bribe commits oppression against an innocent person for a trivial worldly benefit and snatches away his right, even though he was appointed precisely to prevent others from oppression. In this respect, his sin becomes far more severe than that of another oppressor, and thus he too is deprived of Allah’s mercy.

(3)
The meaning of la’nat (curse) is to be deprived of Allah’s mercy; it is Allah depriving a servant of His mercy due to some crime. La’nat also means to supplicate that someone be deprived of Allah’s mercy.

(4)
«راشی» refers to the one who gives a bribe, «مرتشی» to the one who takes a bribe, and «رائش» to the one who mediates between the two to settle the matter. All of these are major sinners.