Paying bribery to get a house which can only be owned through a draw
30-9-2007 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalam alaikum, A friend of mine wants to buy a house which is built by a goverment body and he has some doubt regarding bribing. Normally what happens in our state is whenever a goverment brings up any housing scheme it invites people to file application for the same. since the number of applicants are very large, selection of candidate is based on draw. a group of people are there who have contacts in the goverment department and they if you give a desired amount to us we will assure that your name appears in the draw and you will be alloted a house. Does this come under birbery. If the person to whom the house is alloted fails to pay the amount his allotment is cancelled. normally goverment puts those house on auction whose allotment gets cancelled. Again if we give money to those people who have contacts in goverment department they can get the house alloted to us. Is this also bribing. Secondly is it allowed to buy a house from a person who got a house alloted by bribing like the case which i have mentioned above. Please let me know the answer to my queries at the earliest
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 draw which you mentioned is fair in the situation which you mentioned in the question. Buying the house is in principle a right for all the applicants, but since it is not possible to meet all their demands, then it is justice to carry out a draw, because the right can only be confirmed for some of them and it is only by a draw that these indefinite people can be selected.
Therefore, the person who pays bribery to the people in charge is considered as spending his money in what he can only get by a draw, and whoever spends his money in order to get what he has no right in getting is sinful. In case he pays bribery and he does not get what he wants, and pays again for the second time, then he commits a greater sin as he tried to get to what is forbidden more than once.
As regards the issue of buying the house from a person who obtained it through bribery, then it appears, and Allaah Knows best, that this is not permissible because the seller is selling something which he did not own legally. The draw is for selecting a person among all the applicants, therefore, whoever transgresses this method [draw] in one way or another, then he has taken the right of others, and if he sells it he sells something that he does not own, and the Prophet : "Do not sell what you do not own." [Ahmad]; which means what you did not legally possess. Therefore, it is not permissible for you to buy the house from whoever obtained it in this way.
Allaah Knows best.