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Fatwa CenterGiving bribery to settle a traffic matter
Question
Assalamualaikum wr wb. To reconcile a traffic matter with a police officer on the street, can i give an amount of money? I know that it's wrong to bribe but i have no choice since i can be in much worse trouble later
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.
We have already issued Fataawa 85946 and 83777 clarifying that bribery is forbidden and that it is one of the major sins. Therefore, if you were at fault in an accident or that you contravened the traffic rules, like driving a car without a driving license and the like, and you want to pay that bribery to cancel the resulting punishment, then this is not permissible; in order to protect the general system and the public benefit, and to put it in priority over the private benefit. However, if you are wronged and you are not able to get rid of the injustice except by paying money and if you do not pay, you will incur a greater loss, like being imprisoned and the like, then it is permissible to pay that amount of money in order to repel the greater harm by committing the lesser harm. The scholars 
are of the view that the bribery by which a person achieves his right or repels an injustice is permissible and the sin falls upon the one who takes the bribery and not the one who gives it to him. However, if a person refrains from paying the bribery and preserves patience with the injustice that he incurred, then this is better.
Allaah Knows best.
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