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13,29613/01/2006

Ruling on the money that a lawyer gets for defending a drug dealer

Question: 78210

There are two people who were arrested for possessing drugs and hasheesh, then a lawyer got them out and had them found innocent of this crime, although their crime was as clear as the light of day and the accusation against them was clearly proven. 

My question is: 

What is the ruling on this money that the lawyer got for getting them out?.

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

The ruling
on practising law has been explained in a fatwa quoted in the answer to
question no. 9496. We stated there that it is haraam for lawyers to protect
evil and defend those who do evil, and that this comes under the heading of
cooperating in sin and transgression, which Allaah has forbidden as He says
(interpretation of the meaning): 

“Help you
one another in Al‑Birr and At‑Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but
do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allaah. Verily,
Allaah is Severe in punishment”

[al-Maa’idah 5:2]

Based on
this, the lawyer who defended these evil dealers who spread mischief in the
land by selling haraam drugs has to repent to Allaah, may He be exalted,
from this action. He should hasten to advise those evildoers not to follow a
path that will let them escape from the punishment they deserve. He has to
go back before the judges and retract his defence, if it is not too late,
and he should not agree to carry on with them if there is any appeal against
them. 

With regard
to the money that he has taken from them, it is haraam wealth, because he
took it in return for a haraam deed. Hence as well as repenting, seeking
forgiveness and resolving not to do this again, he has to hasten to get rid
of this wealth, by spending it on charitable causes. He should remember that
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The one
who repents from sin is like the one who did not sin at all.” He should also
note that by doing that he will purify his permissible wealth, because if he
keeps the haraam wealth, that may lead to the destruction of the permissible
wealth that he has. It is not permissible for him to give it back to those
dealers. We ask Allaah to compensate him with something better than it. 

And Allaah
knows best.

Source

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