ISLAM

Halaal And Haraam – part II

Most people are of the opinion that Haraam means eating pork or drinking liquor or involving in usury and worshiping idols are shirk; I don’t say that they are wrong but one should also understand that disobeying Allah is also Haraam, for they should understand that it is Satan who makes them disobey Allah and disobeying Allah and obeying Satan also amounts to Haraam and sometimes to Shirk. For example Allah says in the Quran:

 therefore fear not men but fear Me (Allah) and sell not My Signs (verses of the Quran) for a miserable price.  If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed they are (no better than) unbelievers.          Quran – 5 : 44

I taught some persons of the people of Suffah writing and the Qur'an. A man of them presented to me a bow. I said: It cannot be reckoned  property; may I shoot with it in Allah's path? I must come to the Apostle of of Allah (peace be upon him) and ask him (about it). So I came to him and said : Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him), one of those whom I have been teaching writing and the Qur'an has presented me a bow, and as it cannot be reckoned property, may I shoot with it in Allah's path? He said: If you want to have a necklace of fire on you, accept it.

Sunan of Abu-Dawood
Hadith 3409  Narrated by
Ubaydah ibn as-Samit

So one could see it crystal clear that Allah and His Prophet (s.a.w) have made selling the ayaths (verses) of the holy Quran – HARAAM, please understand printing and binding and selling the Holy Quran is not in the least prohibited, it is only reading the verses of The Quran or teaching the verses of the Holy Quran and then taking money for it is prohibited both in the Quran and Hadees .  Now tell me could one conduct Salah (Prayer) without reading the verses of the Quran, and if that Alim asks for a salary for conducting the Salah is it not totally Haraam, and if people give a salary to him that too is Haraam, and if people pray behind him that too is Haraam, for Muhammed (S.a.w.) said:

I heard the Messenger of Allah as saying: He who amongst you sees a wrong or Haraam should stop it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue; and if he has not strength enough to do it  (even), then he should (hate it) from his heart and (keep away from it) that is the least of faith (eeman).

Sahih Muslim Hadith
Hadith 79            Narrated by
AbuSa'id al-Khudri

Prophet Muhammed also said: “ the Jews were cursed because – when they saw a wrong they would go and warn the wrong doers, and then they too would join in the wrong”; Muhammed (s.a.w) was reclining on a cusion , he then sat up erect and warned the Muslims against it.        Sahih al Bukhari

So if we stand behind this Imam who takes a salary especially to conduct the Salah (prayer) tell me, will we get even one virtue for that prayer, remember we are partners to the Haraam of the Imam and   and also to the Haraam of the Masjid members who are paying the wages; as a True Muslim it is our duty to stop this Haraam and make someone who does not take wages for conducting the Salah, conduct the Salah and most appropriate would be the Masjid leaders like the Amir, or chairman or president of the Masjid, or someone with some important position in the Masjid or Muhallah (that area); for it is the duty of that person to conduct the prayer in the name of Allah without taking any wages for it.

At this juncture it is important to mention that the imams of the Masjid would say that Abu Bakr R.A. took money from the public treasury – please understand that as for Abu Bakr R.A., the public forced him to take the money from the Government treasury because he was nominated as the Khaleefah ( the ruler of the entire Muslim nation) and if he were to go looking for a job who was there to attend to the Nation’s needs, so he was paid for looking after the welfare of the public and not for conducting the prayer, also since he was the leader of the Muslims it became his duty to conduct the prayer in the Masjid. We should also remember that during the time to Abu Bakr R.A. there were hundreds of Masjids and none would be able to prove that the Imams of these Masjids took salary for conducting the prayer.

 It is not fitting for a Believer man or woman when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Apostle to have any difference of opinion in this matter: if anyone disobeys Allah and His Apostle he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.       Al Quran:  33-36

Secondly, some of the Imams taking salary for conducting the Prayer will say – the Madarasa’s have given a Fatwah that imams conducting Immamath (prayer) could take salaries for their work,  but tell me just because the majority of the Europeans drink liquor could we pass a Fatwah that drinking liquor to a nominal amount is allowed, will you accept this Fatwah, well say you accepted this Fatwah would Allah excuse you because the Alims of the Masjid have passed a Fatwah declaring it as Halaal -  well you know it is very stupid,  but that is the same story with the Imams taking wages for conducting the prayers; if you are really wise you should not waste the virtues Allah gives you for Salah (prayer) and mind you next to saying Kalimah La ILAHA ILLALLAH the most virtuous of the deeds is Salah, each Fard Salah could be even equal to hundreds of years of the life in the hereafter or more no one really knows how much the Magnanimous Allah would give for each Fard Salah that we make, and wasting this is not wise, the best one could do is form his own Jamath or congregation and conduct the Prayers if not pray alone – for this is far better than loosing all the virtues for the Salah.

Thirdly, we could enlighten the public as to these norms and conditions and give the Imam some post as Manager or caretaker of the Masjid or hire him to teach Arabic to the public and pay him for these or any of this job, and ask him to conduct the prayer only in the Name of Allah and for Allah’s sake alone and not for the money; this too would be totally Halaal.  The Madarasa teachers could be Wardens or Deputy wardens, or teach Arabic, or some other subjects like maths, history, science, etc. etc. to the children and get paid for it – it would be totally Halaal and they could in addition teach the children Quran and Hadees just in the name of Allah and not for the money.

Kindly don’t miss the part III of Halaal & Haraam document.