The imam of the mosque is telling the muezzin that he has to pay a salary to the cleaner who is working instead of the official cleaner who does not do any work!

Question 126093

I started a job in a mosque, as a muezzin, but when I agreed to work there, the imam stipulated a number of conditions, as follows:
1. I have to give the Bengali cleaner a monthly salary of no more than 800 riyals and no less than 500 riyals, from my own salary which is 1350 riyals.
2. I am responsible for renewing his annual visa (iqaamah), which costs 300 riyals.
3. I am responsible for his ticket back home every 2½ years, which costs 1300 riyals.
4. I should not evict the tenants who are living in the muezzin’s accommodation, and I had to agree to the rent of 18,000 riyals, even though this accommodation is worth a rent of approximately 24,000 riyals.
Please note that this mosque is registered with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, i.e., it is a government mosque and it has a Saudi cleaner who receives a full salary, but does not do any work in the mosque. Why should I bear all of these conditions and obligations? Does the imam have the right to stipulate these conditions when he is an employee and I am an employee?.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

Firstly:

The imam does not have the right to oblige you to do what you have mentioned, when he is an employee like you and has no authority over you in this regard. You have to refer the matter to the Mosques Department.

Secondly:

It is not permissible for the muezzin to take a salary for giving the adhaan and not do it. By the same token, it is not permissible for the cleaner to take a salary when he does no work; it is not sufficient to hire someone else to do his work without checking with the government department and getting permission from them.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Some people who are employed as cleaners in the mosque will hire a foreigner for one quarter of what they take as a salary, and consume the rest without doing anything in return -- Allah forbid. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said that such actions come under the heading of consuming people's wealth unlawfully. Some of the directors of Awqaaf departments say: It does not concern us who does the job; rather what matters is that the work is done. I asked the representative of the Ministry about that and he denied it, and said that the Ministry does not approve of it. But it is essential to differentiate between cases where the hired worker is sponsored by the (Saudi) cleaner, in which case it is permissible for him to give him his job, and cases in which the cleaner is not sponsoring him, in which case it is not permissible.

End quote from Thamaraat al-Tadween

What you have mentioned in your question is worse than that. The (Saudi) cleaner is not hiring a worker from his own money; rather he wants someone else to pay the cleaner. This is a kind of injustice and consuming people's wealth unlawfully, as he is taking the salary without doing anything in return. We ask Allah to keep us all safe and sound.

And Allah knows best.

Support IslamQA

The imam of the mosque is telling the muezzin that he has to pay a salary to the cleaner who is working instead of the official cleaner who does not do any work!

Question 126093

Answer