785 – Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with them both, reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The most rightful thing for which you may take payment is the Book of Allah.” Recorded by al-Bukhārī (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• Compensation (ajr): the wage given to a worker for his labor; it is also called kirāʾ. From the same root comes the expression used in condolences, “ʾĀjaraka Allah,” meaning, “May Allah grant you its reward.”

Points derived from the ḥadith
1 – The narration proves the permissibility of receiving remuneration for teaching the Quran—especially when the teacher’s aim is virtuous and he accepts the wage to strengthen himself for performing this task and similar works of obedience, thereby spreading beneficial knowledge.
2 – Shaykh al-Islām said: The jurists unanimously distinguish between hiring someone for devotional acts (istiʾjār ʿalā al-qurub) and granting a stipend (rizq) to those who perform them. The allowances of combatants, judges, callers to prayer, and imams are permitted without dispute, whereas contracting a hire-wage for such acts is impermissible according to most scholars.
3 – Al-Rawd al-Murbiʿ states: It is permissible to receive a stipend for pilgrimage, leading the prayer, calling the adhān, and teaching the Quran—whether from the public treasury (bayt al-māl), by way of a reward (juʿālah), or taken without prior stipulation.
The author explains: What is taken from the public treasury is neither a fee nor a wage; rather, it is a stipend intended to aid one in obedience. The same ruling applies to endowments earmarked for charitable works, to bequests, and to vows dedicated to them; these are not treated as wages.