Is it permissible to take payment for teaching or reciting the Quran?

Taking a wage for teaching the Quran, for ruqyah, and for services connected to it is permissible according to the strongest view. A group of companions recited al-Fatihah over a tribal chief who had been stung, were given a flock of sheep, and the Prophet ﷺ approved it and asked for a share of it (Sahih al-Bukhari 2276, in the Book of Hiring; also narrated by Muslim in the Book of Salam), and in the narration of Ibn 'Abbas he said: "The most deserving thing for which you take payment is the Book of Allah" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5737). He also married a man to a woman for the surahs he had memorised (Sahih al-Bukhari 5087; Sahih Muslim 1425), which the fuqaha' take as evidence that teaching the Quran has a recognised value that may be contracted for. Some scholars disliked or prohibited taking a wage specifically for teaching, and it is undoubtedly nobler to teach for Allah's sake alone when one is not in need; but a teacher or imam taking a salary is not sinful, and the later scholars of the schools permitted it so that the Quran and its teaching would not be lost. What is not legislated is hiring people to recite the Quran over graves or at gatherings for the dead in exchange for money — that has no basis in the Sunnah.

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