The jurisprudential ruling concerning the offering of gifts to judges in Islamic law

The permissibility of a judge’s acceptance of gifts from litigating parties or from others is among the significant issues long debated within Islamic jurisprudence. Given the unanimous consensus among jurists regarding the prohibition of bribery, there is no dispute that a judge’s acceptance of bribes is categorically forbidden. Consequently, in the discussion of a judge’s acceptance of gifts whether from litigants or even from individuals with no pending dispute before the judge it is often presumed that any gift offered to a judge must necessarily be a bribe and cannot be motivated by any other legitimate intention. The majority of jurists have categorically ruled that it is impermissible for a judge to receive such gifts. Their principal argument is that a judge’s gift effectively constitutes a form of bribery and must therefore fall under the same prohibition. In contrast, some jurists distinguish, at the level of subject and definition, between bribery and gifting, and consequently deem the judge’s acceptance of gifts permissible. The central question raised in this article is whether the prohibition on bribery extends to gifts as well. A descriptive-analytical examination of juristic opinions indicates that a gift is not inherently equivalent to a bribe; however, certain types of gifts may, under specific circumstances, constitute bribery and thus fall under its legal ruling of prohibition.

کلیدواژه ها:

gift ، Bribery ، Judge ، Litigant ، Imāmī Jurisprudence