lawful for them. For wrongdoing makes a transaction unlawful for the wrongdoer, not for the person wronged. Do you not see that when someone who conceals defects, cheats, or acts similarly sells another person something whose defects have been concealed, the purchase does not become unlawful for the buyer merely because he has been charged more than he ought to pay, even though the excess taken by the cheat is unlawful for him?

There are many such examples in Islamic law. Where a prohibition concerning people’s rights applies to one party, it does not necessarily apply to the other. For example, if a man buys back his own property from someone who has forcibly seized it, the seller is forbidden to take the price, but the buyer is not forbidden to recover his property or to pay the price he has offered.

For this reason, the scholars have said:

It is permissible to bribe an official to ward off injustice, but not to prevent the fulfilment of a right; bribing him is unlawful in either case. Likewise, a captive, or a freed slave whose master denies having freed him, may ransom himself with money. He is permitted to pay it, even though the person unjustly holding him is not permitted to take it. Similarly, if a woman has been divorced three times but her husband denies having divorced her, and she secures her release through what outwardly takes the form of a divorce in return for compensation, the payment is unlawful for him to take, while it frees her from the bondage of his control.

For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“I give one of them a gift, and he takes it away as a fire that burns him.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, why, then, do you give to them?” He replied, “They insist on asking me, and Allah refuses to let me be miserly.”

Another example is his saying:

“Whatever a person spends to protect his honour is charity.”

Thus, if