Graft is in no way permissible before the throne of God.

 

106. Graft is in no way permissible before the throne of God. Bribery is considered to be a way leading to corruption; one must neither give or receive gifts with the intent of eliciting favors:  Judaism: Deuteronomy 16:19 “Thou shalt not wrest judgment thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.” Psalms 26:9 “Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:” Psalms 26:10 “In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.” Isaiah 33:15 “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;” Isaiah 33:16 “He shall dwell on high:” Sirach 40:12 “All bribery and injustice shall be blotted out: but true dealing shall endure for ever.”(Deuterocanonical Apocrypha,)  Christianity: Luke 14:12 “Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense (compensation) be made thee.” Luke 14:13 “But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:” 14:14 “And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Acts 8:20 “But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” 8:21 “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.” 1 Peter 3:10 “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:” 3:11 “Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.” 2 Peter 2:18 “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure (attract, entice) through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” 2:19 “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” “Resist… the bribe.” (St Augustine, Book  6)

 BABI RELIGION: “The system of corruption (graft) had been carried so far in Persia that it had become a recognized institution.”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. xxvi)

 ISLAM: 188. “And do not eat up your property among yourselves for vanities, nor use it as bait for the judges, with intent that ye may eat up wrongfully and knowingly a little of (other) people’s property.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   2)

Islam: 106. “Ye shall empanel (put on jury) them both after the prayer, and, if ye doubt, they shall be made to swear by Allah (God) (saying): We will not take a bribe, even though it were (on behalf of) a near kinsman nor will we hide the testimony of Allah, for then indeed we should be of the sinful.”

(The Qur’an (Pickthall tr), Surah  5)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: 70. “To every one comes the unseen, deceiving Astivihad,” 71. “Who accepts neither compliments, nor bribe,”

(Zoroaster, The Zend-Avesta, Avesta Fragments)

 HINDUISM: 186. “Though (by his learning and sanctity) he may be entitled to accept presents, let him not attach himself (too much) to that (habit); for through his accepting (many) presents the divine light in him is soon extinguished.” 187. “Without a full knowledge of the rules, prescribed by the sacred law for the acceptance of presents, a wise man should not take anything, even though he may pine with hunger.”

(Hindu, Laws of Manu chapter 4)

 Hinduism: 258. “Those who take bribes, cheats and rogues, gamblers, sanctimonious hypocrites, and fortune-tellers, Officials of high rank and physicians who act improperly, These and the like who show themselves openly, as well as others who walk in disguise (such as) non-Aryans who wear the marks of Aryans, he should know to be thorns in the side of his people.”

(Hindu, Laws of Manu chapter 9)

 BUDDHISM: “Lay members should abstain from all unkindness, stealing, unchastity, lying, duplicity, slander, frivolous talk, covetousness, malice, currying (eliciting) favor, and false teachings. Disciples should strictly observing all the precepts given by the Tathagatas, they should endeavor, by their example, to induce all beings to abandon evil and practice the good.” (Buddha, Diamond Sutra)

 Buddhism: “He has nothing to do with false measures, metals and weights. He avoids the crooked ways of bribery, deception and fraud. He keeps aloof from stabbing, beating, chaining, attacking, plundering and oppressing.”

((The Eightfold Path), Buddha, the Word (The Eightfold Path))

 BABI RELIGION: “Under its political aspects, the practice of gift-making, though consecrated in the adamantine traditions of the East, is synonymous with the system elsewhere described by less agreeable names. This is the system on which the government of Persia has been conducted for centuries, and the maintenance of which opposes a solid barrier to any real reform. From the Shah downwards, there is scarcely an official who is not open to gifts, scarcely a post which is not conferred in return for gifts, scarcely an income which has not been amassed by the receipt of gifts. Every individual, with hardly an exception, in the official hierarchy above mentioned, has only purchased his post by a money present either to the Shah, or to a minister, or to the superior governor by whom he has been appointed. If there are several candidates for a post, in all probability the one who makes the best offer will win.”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. xxvi)

BAHA’I FAITH: “If bribery and corruption, known today by the pleasant names of gifts and favors, were forever excluded, would this threaten the foundations of justice?”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 15)

Baha’i Faith: “Let them perform their services with complete sanctity and detachment, and on no account defile themselves by receiving bribes, harboring unseemly motives, or engaging in noxious practices.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol II, p. 344)