A mettlesome Arabian horse, offered to a judge as a token of warm friendship and certainly not as an inducement, is the oldest kind of bribe there is. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá notes how bribery and corruption go about under the pleasant names of gifts and favours, and He asks for a discipline of government so sound that an official could not deviate from the law even if he tried. The harm is made concrete: a merchant summoned to Beirut on false charges and held until he pays, charitable funds quietly lent out at interest for private gain, appointments bought and sold. Against all this stand a few clear lines. A salary is not a bribe; servants of the state are to be content with their wages and keep their character unstained; nobility lies in justice and truthfulness, not in riches plundered from the oppressed. The Qur’án likewise forbids using wealth to sway authorities into wrongful judgment [1]. Whose rights vanish when a gift stops being generous? That question runs on into the conduct of finance and business, and into honesty, truthfulness and trustworthiness as the everyday substance of public trust.
Early next morning he called on the Judge and in the course of conversation told him that he has a very mettlesome Arabian steed and desires to offer it as a present to his honor, not exactly as an inducement to further his affairs speedily; God forbid but as a token of warm friendship and gratitude. The Judge taking up the cue was all obliging sweetness and could not show enough of his expansive smile and ready willingness to put aside all the important matters of state and attend to the immediate consideration of the cases of his "best friend."
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken ca. 1914-11 in Abu Sinan -- ABU0391)
02
If bribery and corruption, known today by the pleasant names of gifts and favors, were forever excluded, would this threaten the foundations of justice?
Not until discipline, order and good government reach the degree where an individual, even if he should put forth his utmost efforts to do so, would still find himself unable to deviate by so much as a hair's breadth from righteousness, can the desired reforms be regarded as fully established.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Madaniyyih (The Secret of Divine Civilization), 1875, to The People of Iran -- AB00004)
03
He said in part:- "This man according to popular tradition must have been bad even before Adam and Eve. He extorted money by the flimsiest excuses from the well-ordered citizens of Syria. For example he would send for a wealthy merchant and manufacturer to come to Beirut on urgent business. Then on his arrival he would tell him. 'I have received bad reports concerning your character and dealings. You must stay here till I send a committee to investigate these false reports and then let you free.' The man finding himself helpless in the face of such accusations stays one, two, three or four weeks. Meanwhile, there is no one at the head of his business and alarming reports come to him. Finally he feels himself constrained to give to the governor a few hundred pounds sterling and get away.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1913-Jul-31 in Ramleh -- ABU0355)
04
"Each year this man would deposit all the funds he had collected under various pretexts with the haddad [ironworker] and charge interest. At last, the Christians learned of the details and protested, 'You collect funds in our name, but instead of spending them on charitable ends, you deposit them with Fu'ad Effendi and personally benefit from the interest?!'
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to the friends, spoken on 1915-Jan-10 -- ABU1539)
05
Dr. Esslemont referred to the passage in the Mysterious Forces where it says that men who serve the House of Justice should receive their recompense from their private income. "Does this mean they should not receive any salary?"
'Abdu'l-Baha: "It means they should not be bribed. There is no objection to their receiving a salary. When this book was written there was a great deal of bribery in Persia."
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Latimer, Esslemont, Randall et al, spoken on 1919-Nov-19 -- ABU0768)
06
Let them perform their services with complete sanctity and detachment, and on no account defile themselves by receiving bribes, harbouring unseemly motives, or engaging in noxious practices.
Human nobility and distinction lie not in wealth and riches, especially illegitimate wealth from plundered property and the acceptance of bribes from oppressed subjects. Rather, elevation of purpose, nobility of nature, human greatness and success in this world and the next depend upon justice and truthfulness, purity and freedom.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1905 ca., to Hands of the Cause of God -- AB02483)
08
For thou knowest that unseemly acts have become the cause of veiling and have deprived most of humanity from the shores of oneness. In all His Tablets, the Exalted Truth hath called His loved ones to sanctity and detachment, and hath forbidden all from corruption, conflict, contention and the consumption of others' wealth.
As to what you asked regarding protection from the evil of the oppressors - do not cause corruption in the land after it has been set in order, lest the tyranny of every stubborn oppressor touch you. For if you become corrupt, you will have wronged your own self.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1290 [1873] or earlier, to Aqa Ali -- BH03468)
10
The Mutasarrif understood whence this matter had arisen. He gave one thousand liras to the Mufti, that he might go to Beirut, present it to the Governor, and obtain a new appointment. The Mufti went to Beirut; but the Governor had heard that this person had brought with him one thousand liras. He became stern and sullen, and gave him no permission to be seated until he had taken the thousand liras.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to the friends, spoken on 1914-Nov-24 -- ABU0176)
11
How ignorant and base must a person be to sully themselves with the filth of misconduct and betrayal of the state! By God, the insects of the earth are superior to such a one.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1904 ca., to Afnan, Haji Mirza Muhammad son of Muhammad Taqi Afnan -- AB01301)
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
12
Those souls who are employed in government should approach their duties with entire detachment, integrity and independence of spirit, and with complete consecration and sanctity of purpose. Content with the wages they are receiving, they should see that they do not stain their fair character through acts of bribery and fraud.
Let them so shape their lives and regulate their conduct that no charge of secrecy, of fraud, of bribery or of intimidation may, however ill-founded, be brought against them....
WOB.064
Supplied quotation · catalogue passage not verified
Sentence boundary needs source review; the supplied wording is retained.