Is it permissible to pay a bribe to get something that is rightfully mine?

Bribery (rishwah) is a major sin, and the Prophet ﷺ cursed the one who gives a bribe and the one who takes it in matters of judgement; likewise he taught that "gifts" given to an official or employee because of his position are misappropriation (ghulūl), as in the ḥadīth of Ibn al-Lutbiyyah, whom he rebuked saying, "Why does he not sit in his father's house and see whether he is given anything?" Paying to obtain what you have no right to, to jump ahead of others, or to cause a judgement against someone, is unlawful without dispute. Where a person is denied an established legal right — a licence, documents, wages — and has exhausted lawful avenues with no other way to obtain it, a body of scholars permits the payment as a means of repelling injustice, the sin then resting on the taker alone; this is a narrow concession for genuine necessity, not a general licence for "greasing the wheels," and taking such money is haram in every case. Allah says: "Do not consume one another's wealth unjustly, nor offer it to the judges so that you may consume a portion of people's wealth sinfully while you know" (Qurʾan 2:188).

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