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Suppose a person is falsely accused for a matter in which they have a danger for their life. Even after tireless effort of seeking help through lawful means, the person either bears the false charges against them or gets rid of them by paying a bribe that is being demanded. Is this permissible?

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  • If I remember correctly, some scholars, perhaps a majority, allow that you lie about being muslim if your life is in danger because of it. If you can renounce islam to save your life, you can clearly pay a bribe as well.
    – G. Bach
    Oct 18, 2016 at 11:16

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In general, necessity overrides prohibition. This comes from Qur'an verses such as: Qur'an 2:173, Qur'an 5:3, and Qur'an 6:145 (regarding food), and Qur'an 16:106 (regarding renouncing one's faith).

Islam Q&A describe it as:

Necessity means cases in which a person will be harmed if he does not take the haraam option, in which the harm will effect the five essentials which are: religion, life, honour, reason and wealth.

In the given setting, as long as there's no alternative to paying the bribe money, and paying the bribe money actually would prevent death, then it would fit in the category of "necessity overrides prohibition".

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