Is it permissible to accept payment for teaching the Qur’an and Islam?

We know that Sufyan Ath-Thawree related that he had the understanding of the Qur’an but the moment he accepted gifts for imparting knowledge from the kings, it was taken away.

So will accepting payment reduce its blessings?

It is permissible to accept payment for teaching Islam, for the following reasons:

1. Early scholars did not have to take money from their students to teach Islam because the State took care of their needs, and life wasn't as expensive as it is these days
2. Sufyan Ath-Thawree's statement needs to be understood in its political and historical context. He was living under a tyrant king and as a result refused to accept gifts from him because he considered it a form of bribery.
3. We are living in a time in which expenses are far higher than before, plus we don't have a Caliph, Waqf system or Baytul Maal to provide salaries for Islamic workers so necessity demands a change in the ruling. This is part of the flexible nature of fiqh.
4. The ruling on whether a person can accept a salary for Islamic work is dependent on the local customs. The custom in the past was that the government would take care of their needs so they weren’t allowed to accept any other payment for the same work. The custom today is that people are paid for such work by their students or organization, so the ruling changes accordingly. This is based on the Fiqh maxim “Local culture is the deciding factor”[1]

Allah knows best.

Reference:

[1] Al-Mufassal Fi Qawaa’id Al-Fiqhiyyah, Dr Ya'qub Bahsin, p. 395