Gifts to officials (hadaya al-ummal) and the rule against them

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy holds that public money is a trust in the hands of the ruler and the official, and that accepting gifts because of one's office comes close to bribery. ^{1 2}

The Sheikh holds that the ruler is a trustee over the people's money, not its owner, and that public money must never be plundered. ¹ He cites a saying attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, that the wealthy should refrain and the poor should take what is fair (needs_source: the saying is not sourced in the recording). ¹

The Sheikh says that a public official may take, under the name of a gift, what in reality belongs to the stories of bribery. ³ He reports that in England gifts are allowed up to a limit of eighty pounds sterling (needs_source: the figure is not sourced in the recording), and that anything above that is returned to the government and not kept by the official. ^{3 4}

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's view (opinion): year-end gifts that pupils give their teachers can become bribes when they are meant to win favour. ² He also says that gifts to officials are embezzlement (ghulul), a saying whose source is not given in the recording (needs_source). ²

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's view (opinion): private lessons imposed on parents as a form of extortion are a disguised bribe, and God does not bless them. ⁵ He holds that income gained through bribery brings no blessing, and that unlawful earnings nullify good in their holder. ⁶

The Sheikh recounts that Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him), returning from the pilgrimage, consulted the keeper of the treasury about the cost of the pilgrimage. ^{7 8} He tells how Umar examined a report that Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) had traded while he was a governor, and how Abu Hurayra was cleared. ⁹ He holds that laxity in holding officials to account is a sign of decline. ¹⁰