Remuneration for Leading the Taraaweeh salaah

Q: Salaah-201: To lead the Taraaweeh salaah, Huffaadh sometimes fix an amount as remuneration, they sometimes tell the trustees of the Masjid to pay as much as they please and sometimes the trustees say that they will pay an amount from their goodwill. Is this all permissible?

Answer: Paying. and receiving remuneration for leading the Taraaweeh salaah is not at all permissible. Both the people paying and those receiving will be sinful. Rather than performing the Taraaweeh salaah in this manner, it is better for the people to perform the Taraaweeh salaah by just reciting the last ten Surahs of the Qur'aan.

Leading the Taraaweeh salaah for the pleasure of Allaah and rendering assisstance for the pleasure of Allaah is however a rarity nowadays because if a Haafidh is not paid one year, he will never return the following year therefore, although the proper ruling states that remuneration for leading the taraaweeh salaah is not permissible, the difficulty facing almost every Masjid needs to be taken into consideration. A method to circumvent this difficulty is therefore to appoint the Haafidh as a deputy Imaam just before Ramadhaan and then appoint him to lead a salaah or more. It will then be permissible for him to take remuneration as an lmaam, which has been made permissible.

Hadhrat Mufti Kifaayatullaah RAH. writes: lf a Haafidh is employed during the month of Ramadhaan, he must be appointed to lead a salaah or two in which case it will be permissible for him to receive remuneration. This will be permissible because the Fuqahaa have permitted taking a salary for being an Imaam ." (27 Sha'baan 1370 A.H.)
Hadhrat Mufti Mahmoodul Hasan Gangohi RAH. writes: Although the original ruling states that it is not permissible, there is leeway to employ the stated method in the stated case." (15 Sha'baan 1370 A.H')

Fatawa Rahimiyyah vol.2