A Response to Those Who Prohibit Taking a Fee for Reciting the Qur'an for a Sick Person

Question : If someone were to say, “How is it permissible to take a fee for reciting the Qur'an?” we would say: This fee is not for his recitation of the Qur'an. It is not as if it were said to a man, “Recite al-Fatihah for us, recite al-Baqarah for us, and we will give you ten [riyals], for example.” No, it is not like that. This fee is for the treatment, for the fact that he treated him by reciting the Qur'an. And its likeness is from Allah the Exalted.

Answer : So, is the benefit of this recitation transitive or intransitive? It is transitive. Just as it is permissible to take a wage for teaching the Qur'an, whereas for reciting the Qur'an, no, it is not permissible. If a person takes a wage for reciting the Qur'an, this is forbidden and he has no reward. If he takes a wage for teaching the Qur'an, this is permissible and there is no harm in it, because the wage here is for a transitive act. And if he takes a wage for reciting the Qur'an for a sick person, this is permissible because the benefit of that is transitive.