What is the ruling on taking a fee for teaching the Qur'an, including a mention of the disagreement on this matter?

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. And may prayers and peace be upon Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. Regarding the question about the prohibition of taking a fee for the Qur'an or teaching the Qur'an, I would like to clarify: does teaching the Qur'an include teaching the interpretation of the Qur'an, or teaching the rules of Qur'anic recitation?

The Shaykh : The answer is that it is not permissible to take a fee for any act of worship. Every act of worship falls under the general text, and every matter that is religious falls under the general text. For example, Allah the Exalted said: And also Allah the Exalted said: . The first verse is explicit in its indication regarding the subject: . As for the other verse, it requires some explanation and clarification from what the scholars of exegesis have mentioned. When Allah the Exalted said: , they said: "Righteous deeds are those that conform to the Sunnah." So whoever is contrary to the Sunnah, his deed is not a righteous deed. Many hadiths have come regarding this from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), such as his statement in the famous and well-known hadith in the two Sahihs, narrated by Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . The hadiths in this meaning are well known, if Allah wills, so there is no need to lengthen the speech by mentioning them. When Allah the Exalted said: , meaning conforming to the Sunnah, , meaning he does not seek the reward for that act of worship from anyone other than Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. The hadiths that command the sincerity of intention in obedience and worship are also numerous and famous. So this Qur'anic text, after its explanation, along with the first text, both are general texts indicating that worship is not worship except with two conditions. The first condition is that it be in accordance with the Sunnah. The second condition is that it be pure for the face of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. And peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. These are general texts that encompass every act of worship. As for the Qur'an, there are specific texts, the most famous and authentic of which is his statement (peace and blessings be upon him): . "They hasten" means they seek its immediate reward and do not delay it, meaning they do not seek the deferred reward in the Hereafter. Therefore, for all of this, it is not permissible for a Muslim to seek a reward from any act of worship he performs except from Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. And thus, the issue is not limited to the recitation of the Qur'an only, and specifically not to the state that some reciters have reached today, in which the news of the noble Messenger mentioned earlier has come true for them: . So the matter is broader and more extensive than that. There is no difference between one who recites the Qur'an for recitation only and takes a fee, and one who teaches the Qur'an and takes a fee for it, and one who interprets the Qur'an and takes a fee for it, and one who teaches hadith and takes a fee for it, and one who leads prayer, calls to prayer, and serves the mosque. All these are acts of worship, and it is not permissible for any Muslim to seek a reward from any of them except from Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. If you know this reality, which is a reality in which I say there should be no disagreement, and I almost said there is no disagreement in it, but then I did not say it because I remembered a disagreement in one specific detail, which is the Noble Qur'an. Some of the schools of jurisprudence followed today say: It is permissible to take a fee for the Qur'an. They have a proof that is correct in terms of narration, but not correct in terms of understanding. As for it being correct in terms of narration, it is in Sahih al-Bukhari. As for it not being correct in terms of understanding, meaning it is not valid to use this narration as evidence, despite its correctness, to argue for what contradicts those decisive proofs, both specific and general, that it is not permissible to take a fee for any act of worship, and especially the Noble Qur'an. That hadith is his statement (peace and blessings be upon him): . This is a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, as we mentioned. And we said that it is not permissible to use it as evidence in terms of understanding, despite its correctness in terms of narration, because this hadith has a context that came attached to the narration itself. It is in Sahih al-Bukhari, as we said, from the narration of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), that he was in a military expedition with a group of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and they passed by an Arab tribe and asked them to let them stay as guests, but they refused. So they stayed far from them, and Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, decreed that a scorpion was sent and stung the leader of the group. So one of his followers sent to those who had wanted to let them stay, but they refused, and said, "Look, perhaps they have something, for they are from the people of the city." So the messenger from that leader came and offered to treat him, but he conditioned it on heads of sheep. I have forgotten now whether it was ten or a hundred. He was the head of a tribe and wealthy, so he accepted that. So what did he do but recite the Fatihah over him after wiping the place of the sting with saliva: . This is what is said in the hadith. So he took the fee and brought it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), being cautious in case it was not permissible for him to benefit from it. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him the aforementioned hadith: . So the scholars differed here. The majority took the hadith as explained by the cause, and the Shafi'is took the hadith without linking it to the cause. And this is the reason for the disagreement. It should be known by every student of knowledge that it is very necessary for one who wants to understand jurisprudence, not only in the Sunnah but also in the Qur'an, to know the causes of the revelation of verses and the causes of the coming of hadiths. The scholars of exegesis have mentioned that knowing the cause of the revelation of a verse helps the researcher to know half the meaning of the verse, and the other half is taken from the science of language and what is related to it from knowledge of the Shari'ah.
Similarly, we derive from this that we also say: Many hadiths cannot be understood correctly except by linking them to their causes of coming. This hadith is among them, and there are many other hadiths that cannot be understood correctly except by linking the narration to its cause. When the hadith was separated from its cause of coming, it gave a general permissibility . So whether the fee is for recitation or for teaching the Qur'an or interpreting the Qur'an, and so on, the hadith is general. But when we link it to the cause of coming, this generality is specified by what came, and this is what the majority of scholars went to, especially the Hanafi scholars when they interpreted this hadith in ruqyah (healing by recitation), they added this phrase in ruqyah, taking it from them from the cause of the coming of the hadith. And this taking is necessary so that the interpretation, if it is of the first type, does not conflict with the general Islamic rules we mentioned earlier from some verses and some hadiths. And this is one of the principles of jurisprudence: when a text comes, whether it is Qur'an or Sunnah, it is not permissible to take it in its generality except by looking at it within the limits of other texts that may restrict its indication or specify it. This is a rule in which there is no disagreement among the scholars of jurisprudence and hadith, indeed among all the scholars of Muslims. The disagreement arises from two reasons: either the hadith is not attributed to some of them at all, or they resort to it absolutely without the cause that clarifies its meaning, as we are in this specific hadith.