Is it permissible to seek knowledge for the sake of a job?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says in her question: Honorable Shaykh, if a person seeks knowledge and his intention is to acquire this knowledge and to seek a job at the same time, what is the ruling on the money he takes from this job?
Answer:
If seeking religious knowledge is for the sake of a job, then this is one of those who seeks the world with the deeds of the Hereafter. Allah the Exalted said:[Hud 11:15-16] [Hud 11:16]. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Woe to the slave of the khamisah, woe to the slave of the khamilah, woe to the slave of the dinar, woe to the slave of the dirham. So the one who intends by acts of obedience and good deeds to reach the greed of the world falls under this severe warning. This is from shirk (associating partners with Allah), from minor shirk which does not take one out of the religion, but it nullifies the reward of the worker and causes him to lose the reward of his deed. This is a severe warning, but the door of repentance is open. So whoever seeks the world with the deeds of the Hereafter, he must repent to Allah and improve his intention, whether he is seeking knowledge or something else; he must correct his intention and make it sound. And whoever repents, Allah accepts his repentance. Yes.
The questioner says in her question: Honorable Shaykh, if a person seeks knowledge and his intention is to acquire this knowledge and to seek a job at the same time, what is the ruling on the money he takes from this job?
Answer:
If seeking religious knowledge is for the sake of a job, then this is one of those who seeks the world with the deeds of the Hereafter. Allah the Exalted said:
(15) Whoever desires the life of this world and its adornments - We fully repay them for their deeds therein, and they therein will not be deprived. (16) Those are the ones for whom there is not in the Hereafter but the Fire. And lost is what they did therein, and worthless is what they used to do.
مَن كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا وَزِينَتَهَا نُوَفِّ إِلَيْهِمْ أَعْمَالَهُمْ فِيهَا وَهُمْ فِيهَا لَا يُبْخَسُونَ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَfor whom there is not in the Hereafter but the Fire. And lost is what they did therein, and worthless is what they used to do.
لَيْسَ لَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ إِلَّا النَّارُ وَحَبِطَ مَا صَنَعُوا فِيهَا وَبَاطِلٌ مَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 6102- هل يجوز طلب العلم لأجل الوظيفة؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.