Taking a fee for performing marriage contracts
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Some people take permission to perform marriage contracts, and those who get married through them pay them some money. Is this practice permissible?
The Shaykh:
The marriage officer (al-ma'adhun) obtains this authority through the Ministry of Justice, which deals with the judiciary, to facilitate matters for the people. They permit some students of knowledge to register marriage contracts for women. This is a good and righteous deed. It is obligatory for the marriage officers to fear Allah, to make things easy for the people, and to be careful in matters so that they marry men to women with knowledge and in accordance with the way of Allah the Exalted. If someone pays them some money or a gift without any demand, delay, or harm to anyone, I do not know of any issue with that. Even if they have salaries, their salaries may be small, and they may have expenses to cover. If something is given to him without him asking for it, without delay or harm to anyone, and he is fulfilling his duty, then I do not know of any issue with that. Yes.
The questioner:
Shaykh, may Allah forgive you, there is one who does not perform a contract for less than one thousand riyals.
The Shaykh:
Yes, the matter may be raised to the Minister of Justice, as he is responsible for this matter, or the matter may be raised to the Minister of Justice so that he can replace him with someone else and take a pledge from him. Yes.
He says: Some people take permission to perform marriage contracts, and those who get married through them pay them some money. Is this practice permissible?
The Shaykh:
The marriage officer (al-ma'adhun) obtains this authority through the Ministry of Justice, which deals with the judiciary, to facilitate matters for the people. They permit some students of knowledge to register marriage contracts for women. This is a good and righteous deed. It is obligatory for the marriage officers to fear Allah, to make things easy for the people, and to be careful in matters so that they marry men to women with knowledge and in accordance with the way of Allah the Exalted. If someone pays them some money or a gift without any demand, delay, or harm to anyone, I do not know of any issue with that. Even if they have salaries, their salaries may be small, and they may have expenses to cover. If something is given to him without him asking for it, without delay or harm to anyone, and he is fulfilling his duty, then I do not know of any issue with that. Yes.
The questioner:
Shaykh, may Allah forgive you, there is one who does not perform a contract for less than one thousand riyals.
The Shaykh:
Yes, the matter may be raised to the Minister of Justice, as he is responsible for this matter, or the matter may be raised to the Minister of Justice so that he can replace him with someone else and take a pledge from him. Yes.
Source
ندوات الجامع الكبير مع الأسئلة - 44 — archive.org (1:06:33)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.