JOIN USThe menace is so prevalent that no body seems to be exempt from it. It has become the norm rather than the exception. Worse still is that ill gotten money seems to have lost its stigma and many do not consider it unethical any more as long as they do not get caught. Certainly corruption is not a new thing in human societies. It is an age-old menace which can cause tremendous harm to society.
Apart from the obvious damage that is caused to society through bribery and corruption, Islam provides another view on this menace. Islam has clearly and categorically highlighted the damage which it does to the person himself who indulges in ill gotten money through corruption. God says in the Qu’ran; ‘Do not co -nsume one another's property by unjust means; nor offer it as a bribe to the authorities, so that you may deliberately and wrongfully devour a part of other people’s wealth.’ (2:188).
Islam frowns upon bribery and corruption. It is definitely a sinful act. All benefits derived from sinful activities are definitely unlawful. There is a famous saying of the Prophet which directly applies to this. It states that ‘the flesh that grows having been fed on unlawful income has no place in the hereafter except in hell.’ In other words one’s salvation itself is linked to pure and lawful income.
Now days an amusing tendency is noticed among those who enrich themselves by wrongful means, they tend to give a portion of that amount in religious endowments or charity believing that by this donation their unlawful action will somehow be justified. Little do they realize that this donation is itself akin to bribing God. In Islam it is not only the end which is important but also the means to it. To achieve a noble end it is also absolutely necessary to adopt lawful me- ans to it. Otherwise it has no value in Islam and it will not be accepted from him. This is because God is pure and will not accept any thing but the pure.
If we want a society free of corruption it is not only stringent laws that will achieve it, as we have seen time and again that even the custodians of law are not exempt from it. In fact it has to be with the knowledge that by indulging in corruption they are causing far more damage to themselves than to society at large. For by indulging in corruption they are in fact corruption their own souls with ever lasting consequences.