Will this also be considered as a bribe?
Question:
Asalaamualaikum wa rehmatullahi wa barakaatuhu
mufti sahib.
very soon I will be starting my internship training (which is a compulsory training a doctor is supposed to do after passing his final year MBBS) now in the hospital some persons come known as medical representatives. They are sent by various medical agencies and they give various types of gifts to the doctors and intern doctors for the purpose of promoting the medicine of their agency. Most of the times they give without asking and I think some doctors might be themselves asking for some gifts but I am not sure.
I would like to know whether accepting these gifts amounts to bribery or not. They also give note pads for writing. Will this also be considered as a bribe? Sometimes they also give some medicines on which is written “physicians sample not for sale”. They give these medicines to doctors for trial purposes, to check the efficiency of these medicines as far as I know. The doctors bring these medicines home and us for themselves. What about the accepting of these medicines is it right as per shariyat or not. please suggest.
Answer:
Wa Alaikum As Salaam,
With respect to the gifts, if these are given without any verbal conditions attached, then there is no harm in accepting these, and it will not be bribery.
As for the medications that are given, you can accept these. They are given as a marketing strategy to promote the medicine and there is not prohibition for this in the Shariah. Once it is given to the doctors, it will be allowed for them to use it for themselves or give these to patients. However, it will not be permissible to sell these.
And Allah knows best,
Mufti Waseem Khan
18/9/2012