Can A Person Receive Salary For The Religious Services? Can We Establish Prayer Behind Paid Officials?

Can a person receive salary for the religious services? Can we establish prayer behind paid officials?

As a principle, it is not permissible in Islam to receive payment for worship. Because worships are performed for Allah (swt). Everyone whose was eligible would be imam and lead prayers in the first periods of Islam. Therefore, it was not needed to assign certain people as imams. Officials who will be present in masjids all the time are required due to reasons such as differentiation of cultural level in the Islamic society, increase in being occupied with different jobs, and decrease in the number of people who are eligible to perform imamah. Therefore, officials who will perform imamah for every time’s prayer are assigned and these people who are assigned to fulfill the duty of performing imamat are paid so that they can earn their livelihood. As a matter of fact, Muslim scholars have considered it permissible to receive wages or salaries for works such as imamate, muazzin and religious teaching, on the grounds that these duties should not be left unattended. (Ibn Nujaym, al-Bahr (Addition of Ali at-Turi), VIII, 33; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, II, 60, 302).

Today, imam-khatibs and muazzins are paid salary not because they perform prayer as imams but because they spare all their working time for this duty (habs al-nafs) instead of dealing with any other job. Because prayer is established and led only for the consent of Allah (swt). On the other hand, leading prayers is not the only duty of imam-khatibs and muazzins. Mosque officials provide several services such as opening mosques for prayers, keeping them ready for worship, cleaning, maintenance, and protection of them as well as delivering sermon, delivering the message of Islam to people, and teaching the Qur’an.

Accordingly, the salaries received by the imam-khatibs and muazzins who fulfill religious services in today’s world are halal and the prayers led by them are valid.

Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA