Students giving gifts to teachers

Some of the students give gifts to their teachers on special occasions. Some of them are her current students, but some are students who she is not teaching now but may teach in the coming years. Others are students that she can never teach because they have already graduated. What is the ruling on these cases?

Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah:

We put this question to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen, may Allaah preserve him, who replied as follows:

There is nothing wrong with the third case, but the other two are not permissible, even if it is a gift for her giving birth etc, because this gift could be seen as an attempt to soften the teacher’s heart (i.e., a bribe).