I can’t believe people really get a sense of pride serving on a masjid board. Reminds me of the Homeowner Association for white people. In reality, a masjid leadership position is not a platform to pat our egos. Like all leadership positions, its an unenviable position. A responsibility that you have to answer to Allah for.
With that off my chest… let’s get to the oily trend of cashing in big time as a celebrity scholar. When someone chooses to go to an Islamic university, they don’t go into it to make money. Well, they shouldn’t. The whole idea is that striving in Deen is detached from worldly gain, because that clouds our intention.
A few days ago, I learned that a major Islamic scholar in Dallas has a $250,000 salary. Considering he was already wealthy before this contract, I was deeply disappointed.
Some of my friends were celebrating how he bought two houses connected to each other. One for himself, one for his parents. How beautiful? Well, no. Not if the money to pay for that lavish PGA lawn came from from teaching Islam. Especially if you are already financially secure.
I was lambasted with all variants of “you want the children of our scholars to be homeless beggars”. When that failed, the conversation descended to “well, he deserves it.”
A good living refutation of these salaried shaykhs is Zakir Naik. Zakir Naik is special. He has never made a single dollar by teaching Islam. The Quran praises this.
And there came a man rushing from the farthest part of the city. He said, “O my people, follow the messengers. Follow those who do not take any payment from you, and who are on the right path.”
Sadly, most Western Islamic scholars do not follow this sunnah. Naik criticizes these scholars. He considers it wrong, and expressed his shock when he went to Canada, and they were charging guests to listen to him.
You should know selling Islam is a big business today. Naik is fighting against the flow. He criticizes the Western culture in which Muslim scholars are charging money to speak at Islamic events.
Naik is serious about not taking a single dollar by selling Islam. No advertisements on his YouTube channel. No copyrights for his books. No income from his TV. He pays for his own hotel and airline tickets. Refuses to attend an event, if it charges attendees. Donates any award money that he receives. True sincerity.
All he asks is that you handle the visa process, so he can enter your country to do dawah.
So how does he eat? Well… he has some small businesses that are not related to Islam. And Allah has given him barakat in those investments.
Why do we need full-time imams?
My cousin Muzzamil was the first to pitch the idea. He said, “We don’t actually need full-time Imams”. And he is right. It adds an expense to the masjid that we don’t need. A responsibility that we can’t uphold.
In fact, the Sahabah were not Imams. They were the best teachers of Islam. They were farmers or merchants. The best scholars of our ummah had their own private earnings. Such as Imam Abu Hanifa, who had his clothing business. By the way, another rabbit hole, where did this idea come that a person can’t do both — make money and be an Islamic scholar?
If the goal of the Imam is to fill the masjid, the Imams are failing. Most of the masjids in USA are mostly empty, anyway. So what are we expecting these Imams to do? Marriage counseling?
I’ll admit. We are attracted to Imams, because we consider them trustworthy. By that, I literally mean worthy of our secrets. Muslims are private people. We can’t just trust anyone who leads salat. We need someone who wears a thowb pinned with the word “Imam” on it. See the silliness?
I mean, I am not trying to be idealistic here. I can get behind a part-time worker. Who handles the marriages, divorces, funerals.
But let’s be real, the best reciters in our community are not masjid Imams. And the Friday sermons by most masjid Imams are… well, you get the picture.
To my Imams. You didn’t study 7 years at an Islamic university to suck at public speaking, and not give dawaa? The modern Imam should have a drive to connect with people. Its sad to go to a Dar-ul-uloom in Chicago, and these students can barely shake your hand. They have no confidence. Locked in a bubble.
Did I say locked in a bubble? Well, yes. They don’t work jobs or run businesses like the rest of us. Maybe that is the problem.
What did our Prophet ﷺ say about taking wages for teaching Islam?
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,
“Recite the Quran and do not exaggerate in it, do not abandon it, do not earn your livelihood from it, and do not accumulate wealth from it.”
Aḥmad 15529 — Sahih according to Al-Arna’ut
Ubaydah said:
I taught some people of Ahl-us-Suffah how to write and Quran. One person gave me a bow. I said, “This can’t be property. May I shoot it in Allah’s path? I must ask the Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, and ask him.” So I went to him and asked about it.
Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said, “If you want a necklace of fire, then accept it.”
What did our Prophet ﷺ say about accepting payment in need?
Some of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ came across an Arabian tribe while traveling. That tribe did not welcome them.
While the traveling companions were in that state, the chief of that tribe was bitten by a snake (or stung by a scorpion).
They asked the Companions, “Do you have any medicine or anyone who can treat with recitation?”
The Companions responded, “You refuse to welcome us, so we will not treat (your chief) unless you pay us.”
The tribe agreed to pay them a flock of sheep. One of the Companions started reciting Surat-al-Fatiha. He spit his saliva at the bite. The patient got cured and his people gave them sheep.
They said, “We will not take it unless we ask the Prophet (whether it is lawful).”
When they asked the Prophet, he smiled.
The Prophet said, "How do you know that Surat-al-Fatiha is a Ruqya? Take it and assign a share for me."
How did early scholars make their buck?
These travelling scholars were mostly poor. A few of them were independently wealthy - among these few were Abu Hanifah, Layth bin Saad, and Abdullah bin al-Mubarak.
The overwhelming majority depended on their families to support them by sending money.
If they had difficulties in receiving money they would borrow, through their teachers, from some rich people and repay the loans when they could.
They also supported themselves, as far as they could, by doing part time work, most typically copying. Many copyists' shops were owned and run by scholars.
As the demand for books grew with the increasing prosperity in the cities of the Islamic world, so too did the number and size of the copying “factories”. Some of them employed as many as two hundred copyists. A copyist in the second century after Hijrah earned one-tenth of a dirham for copying a single page; by the following century, the rate had increased to one-fifth of a dirham.
It was first of all the demand for copies of the Quran (and, later, of the hadiths of the Prophet) that led to the crafts of writing and binding books becoming well established in all the major cities of the Islamic world.
Mohammed Akram Nadwi by Abu Hanifah: His Life, Legal Method & Legacy
This is part of my series on Interest Free Zone: All of the Sahih hadith related to riba, A study of weak hadith on riba, Defining riba, A detailed breakdown on why Islamic mortgages are backdoor riba, Do credit card rewards programs have riba?, Madness on options riba
Related, I have a Riba and Ruin series: Economics is to keep you a dummy, What happened to SVB?, Ward of the State, First Republic: A tale of a fake bank & a fake auction, Hush, hush, a small bank goes poof
Related, I have a Selling Islam series: Salaried Shaykhs, Can paid Shaykhs make mistakes?
References
Nadwi, M. A. (2011). Abu Hanifah: His Life, Legal Method & Legacy. Kube Publishing.